Thursday 28 Mar 2024

The biggest U-Turn

The day after the elections is usually a time for victory, celebrations and clearing the decks for the formation of the new government. In Goa, things worked out differently and all the action took place in one day.

| MARCH 14, 2017, 05:00 AM IST
 Two days after the results, Goans were upset with the developments of the day as they felt it had diluted the values of the electoral system. The people had voted for a change and yet the same party is forming the new government.   
The electorate had given a clear mandate against the erstwhile ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who managed to secure only 13 seats while Congress, emerged as the single largest party in the state. Everyone expected that Congress would be able to form the government as it required the support of only four additional MLAs to get the majority on the floor of the house.  
However as Goa watched in shock on Sunday, March 12, the BJP managed to get the support of 8 additional MLAs that included two independent MLAs and the remaining six MLAs, from two regional parties, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP). This was not the only surprise of the day. BJP even got the Defense Minister of India and former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, to resign from his post and helm the newly formed alliance. Late that night, the BJP staked claimed to form the new government and Parrikar will return to Goa as its chief minister.   
This annoyed a huge section of Goans and they took to social media to question what had happened and ask how the alliance partners, who had campaigned the anti incumbency plank, could now join the same party that they fought against throughout their election campaign.   

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