Goa, with an assembly strength of 40 seats, has been politically turbulent and unstable over the years. In the last few decades, despite big guns such as the BJP and Congress fighting tooth and nail to rule over the coastal state, it is the smaller parties such as the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa Forward Party (GFP), which have played a key role in making or breaking governments.
Since its independence in 1961 from the Portuguese rule, Goa has seen 13 chief ministers and 24 governments. In its six decades, Goa has been put under Presidents’ Rule around five times.
The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, GFP, Revolutionary Goans Party, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) will play a key role in deciding Goa’s political future.
While the ruling BJP is confident of retaining power, the News18’s Poll of Polls (exit polls) indicate a hung assembly in the coastal state. The exit polls indicate the neck and neck fight between the BJP and the Congress, but none of them getting a clear majority.
This is where the local political parties like the GFP and the MGP will emerge as kingmakers, while the AAP and TMC are also hoping to be in the reckoning.
The MGP is Goa’s oldest and indigenous party. In 1963, when the first government was formed in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, the chief minister was Dayanand Bandodkar who founded the MGP.
The party was in power for a decade until Bandodkar passed away. His daughter Shashikala Kakodkar succeeded him and continued to be the CM until 1979.
However, the MGP government collapsed that year, and since then, Goa’s political scenario has largely been teetering.
Marred by defections, the MGP, which has weathered many elections, has often been the kingmaker but never again the king. In 2000, former Goa CM Late Manohar Parrikar formed his government through a BJP-led coalition government with the MGP. However, Parrikar did not need the MGP for 12 years as he steered the BJP to power with a full majority.
The MGP once again found its importance in 2017 assembly election when the BJP, which had won 13 seats, sought its help and that of GFP to help Parrikar come to power. Soon after Parrikar’s death in 2019, his successor Pramod Sawant severed ties with the MGP while accusing them of anti-party activities.
Sawant dropped Sudin Dhavalikar, a senior leader of the MGP and then Deputy CM, after two of his party members defected to the BJP.
In the 2022 elections, the MGP has had a pre-poll alliance with Mamata Banerjee’s TMC.
Over the years, MGP’s strength in the Goa assembly has withered. From having 12 elected MLAs in 1994, the party’s strength has reduced to one in 2022. This was the result of two of their MLAs shifting to the BJP.
However, luck would have it for this indigenous party as once again as it would play an important role in the government formation if the results indicate a hung assembly.
Another party, the GFP is one of Goa’s younger political outfits, which was launched in 2016 by Prabhakar Trimble. Built on the poll plank of representing a ‘true Goan’ or ‘Goenkaponn’, the founders of GFP had maintained that they would ally with any party except the BJP. In 2017, despite building a campaign against the BJP during the elections, MLA Vijai Sardesai, who is at the helm of affairs, allied with the BJP to bring Manohar Parrikar back to power for the fourth time.
Claiming to be disillusioned and cheated by the BJP, the GFP has in the 2022 elections signed a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.
Meanwhile, Goa’s newest entrant and youngest party is the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP), which is led by former AAP worker Manoj Parag. RGP registered itself with the Election Commission this January. It started out as a social organisation built on the premise of fighting to preserve the rights of Goan people. The RGP has fielded candidates against several heavyweights in the state, including chief minister Pramod Sawant (from Sanquelim) and health minister Vishwajit Rane (from Valpoi).
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