November 21, 2024

Operation Lotus Now In Goa

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-07-11 14:25:41

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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The Congress has reacted quickly and strongly after 6 of its 11 MLAs in Goa indicated that they were willing to join the BJP although the job, obviously engineered by a BJP emboldened by the success in Maharashtra, was left incomplete for now as the group could not manage two more MLAs to escape the anti-defection law's net. The party identified state unit chief Michael Lobo and former chief minister Digambar Kamat as main instigators. Congress' Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said that both the above leaders have been drafted as "BJP agents trying for a two-third split in the Congress and offering huge money to MLAs to cross over". Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi sent Mukul Wasnik to Goa to stop Operation Lotus in the state.

But with the BJP not getting the numbers, it seems that the second act of this drama will play out after the assembly session, which started today, ends. Having engineered a vertical split in the state Congress, the BJP will now wait for two or three more MLAs to join after which it will announce that they have merged with the party. Union minister and BJP strategist Bhupendra Yadav landed in the state on Sunday, a day which saw both parties make claims and counter-claims. But it was clear the Congress had lost the plot when MLAs did not show up for the press conference called by Gundu Rao.

Although the BJP is in power in the state, it has just 20 members in a house of 40 and is dependent on the support of smaller parties and independents. It wants to consolidate its position by engineering defections in the Congress which has 11 members. The situation is not new for either of the parties. It remains to be seen whether the Congress can stop the group from swelling and escaping the anti-defection net or whether the BJP makes Goa 'Congress-mukt'.