Faceless BJP

The BJP in Goa has lost its head, figuratively speaking. Some months back it had announced that Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar would be the face of the party for the elections. All that is now water under the Chapora bridge and the BJP has suddenly discovered that it has no leader. At a press conference, Union minister in charge of Goa elections, Nitin Gadkari hinted that the elected MLAs would select the chief minister and that person could very well be Parsekar or even Manohar Parrikar who resigned half-way through the term to take up the post of Union Defence Minister.

Although Pramod Mahajan was the brain behind the plan to eclipse the MGP and take over its electoral assets, Parrikar was the architect of the rise of the BJP in Goa from a party of four MLAs to 21 in 2012. He kept the BJP alive and ticking from 2005 to 2012 when it was in the opposition and led it to an impressive victory in 2012. In many ways, it is difficult to imagine the BJP in Goa without Parrikar and that is probably its weakness. The party cannot go to the polls without Parrikar and the dilemma that it faces is how to make him the face of campaign without making him contest. Gadkari seems to have cleverly resolved this problem by hinting that Parrikar could return without promising; by cajoling an electorate into believing that the Defence Minister is runner without putting him in the race. It’s a clever ruse which might work on the electorate, or backfire.

The flip side of this dilemma is that the BJP has failed to build and nurture the second rung of leaders in the State. While politics in the state tends to revolve around personalities the danger of this approach is that the party tends to flounder when that personality is taken out of the system. Consequently, the party cannot win in Goa without Parrikar. The party cannot win in Gujarat without Narendra Modi and the party cannot win at the national level without Modi. Just like how the Congress cannot do without the Gandhi family.

On another level, was Gadkari’s statement also aimed at skewing the polls in Panaji in Sidharth Kunkalienkar’s favour? A victory for Babush Monserrate or AAP candidate Valmiki Naik will effectively shut the door on Parrikar’s return. So, was this a way of telling voters in the Panaji constituency that if they want Parrikar back they will have to back the BJP candidate so that he can vacate it for him?

The present situation has exposed the BJP and it needs to identify talent to create alternate leaders if it wants to be a long time player or it will suffer the same fate as the Congress.