State scan: Has Goa become the go-to party-hopping destination in India?

Has Goa become the go-to party-hopping destination in India? From the United Goans Party’s (UGP’s) split in 1966 to former chief minister Digambar Kamat defecting to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with seven other Congress legislators earlier this month, there have been a fair number of episodes of defections in the state.

Just months after the Congress candidates took loyalty pledges before the Assembly election, the party is left with just three MLAs. Those who crossed sides include former leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo; his wife, Delilah Lobo; and Congress loyalists like Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, and Rodolfo Fernandes. The ruling coalition, meanwhile, has increased its numbers from 25 MLAs earlier to 33 in the 40-seat Assembly. 

Never has any ruling party in Goa had 33 MLAs out of 40. Sadanand Tanavade, Goa BJP president, said most of the MLAs who defected were earlier in the BJP, and many were insecure about the future of their career in a party that is fading from Indian politics. Though Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has called these defections “an unconditional and principled transfer”, Carlos Álvares Ferreira, Congress MLA from the Aldona constituency, questions the intent behind the move.

“I understand that they (the BJP) are insecure. There have been attempts to topple the government and, therefore, you need stability. But they had a majority, so what was the need for engineering such a defection?” said Ferreira.

Ferreira warned the BJP that there could be a backlash. “It will be loyalists versus newcomers. How will you placate those who have been with the party for long?”

Rajendra Kakodkar, a Trinamool Congress leader, said without the lure of money and power, nobody would defect, and these two are the prime reasons for defections in Goa. Tanavade says the defectors will have to adjust according to the party’s (the BJP) workings. “And if the defectors think they might get some respite in their legal cases, they are wrong,” said Tanavade.

Party hopping

Goa isn’t new to defections. Political analysts say there have been at least 10 major episodes of defections since the state was liberated in the early 1960s. According to Sanjay Kumar, political analyst and co-director at Lokniti CSDS, one of the key reasons for legislators’ shifting allegiances is the low number of constituencies in smaller states. “In smaller states, it’s easier to defect because you need only a few MLAs to fulfil the two-thirds criterion to evade the anti-defection law,” said Kumar.

According to Lokniti’s Kumar, the fear of being convicted of financial crimes or illegal deeds has been a driving factor behind defections to the BJP over the past few years.

With leaders like Kamat, a former chief minister who has been elected seven times from Margao, political analyst Praveen Rai believes voters don’t have any recourse until they have the right to recall their elected leaders when they defect. “I think it is for political parties to chart a way to make amendments in the anti-defection law.” But Sanjay Hegde, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court, believes there’s no point rejigging the anti-defection law, and says it would be better if Parliament scrapped this law. “This law has replaced retail defections with wholesale defections that, essentially, has stifled individuals’ (MLAs’) voice and shifted power from a person to group leaders and whips,” said Hegde.

A brief history

In the 1960s, Goa was new to electoral democracy after it was liberated from Portuguese control. Still, it adapted fast to the practice of defection, which was prevalent in Indian politics even then.

In 1966, when the ruling party — the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) — and the UGP were fighting over the state’s merger into Maharashtra and whether Marathi or Konkani should be the official language of the state, Goa saw its first round of defection. The UGP, headed by Jack de Sequeira and with 12 MLAs, split into two parts; six legislators formed their own faction — the UGP (Furtado group).

Only a few years after Goa got statehood in 1987 was the government of Pratapsingh Rane, a Congress CM in his third term, toppled in 1990. Seven MLAs, led by the then speaker, Luis Proto Barbosa, left the Congress to form the Goan People’s Party (GPP). The GPP, along with the support of MGP legislators and an Independent, went on to form the government. This was followed by the first election to the 40-member state Assembly, with the Congress and MGP rising as two major contenders. Since then, as many as seven CMs led the Treasury bench until 2000.

The BJP (in coalition with the MGP) saw itself at the helm of affairs with the help of engineer-turned-politician Manohar Parrikar. Between 2000 and 2005, he held the CM’s post twice; later his government was reduced to a minority.  The Congress’ Rane was back as CM.

But in the 2012 Assembly elections, the BJP came to power with a full majority for the first time but Parrikar went on to join the Union cabinet, as Defence Minister, and was succeeded by a senior BJP leader, Laxmikant Parsekar.

Following the 2017 polls, which were won by the BJP along with its coalition partners – the MGP and Goa Forward Party (GFP) -- the state, in July 2019, saw another round of defections. Ten Congress legislators defected to the BJP, giving the party a full majority with 27 MLAs.