May 24, 2007, 8:15 GMT
Panaji, May 24 (IANS) Goa's June 2 assembly election results could be decided before a single vote is cast. Candidate 'fixing', last minute party hopping, behind-the-scene deals and names deleted from voter rolls are expected to play a vital role in a state where the electorate has often returned unclear mandates.
Deals, both overt and covert, are expected to influence results in a few but critical number of Goa's 40 seats -- many constituencies have just 20,000-22,000 voters.
The till recently Congress leader Churchill Alemao's Save Goa Front has repeatedly stated that the group was not being propped up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa to cut into the Congress vote.
In the 2002 elections, the BJP, which narrowly came to power, severely dented Congress chances by offering behind-the-scenes support to a diverse set of politicians in constituencies where it did not have a toehold.
Controversial ex-Congress politician Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate, who quit the ruling party after his wife was deprived ticket, is seen, despite denials, as being close to and aiding BJP Goa's ex-chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
Both are contesting from the adjoining constituencies of Taleigao and Panaji. They have had an uneasy relationship, turning from staunch critics to allies and again bitterly criticising each other. BJP's Parrikar is himself facing a direct one-on-one battle against Congress' Dinar Tarcar.
For its part, the Congress, in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is also known to notch up its own strategies.
This election season, when politicians of all hues have been intensely criticised for letting down citizens, the run up to the polls has been marked by an intense and unusual round of party hopping.
Among those who changed parties include long term Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Kashinath Jalmi and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) campaigner Mohan Amshekar (both to Congress), bitter BJP critic and ex-student leader Aires Rodrigues (to BJP), and a range of mid-level and other party leaders.
Even as the electoral stakes heat up, the media is also fighting one of the most polarised election campaigns that Goa has witnessed.
While some newspapers take sides, the mushrooming number of cable TV news-based programmes have been fairly open about supporting one or the other contestants.
In another strange case, Vishwajit Rane, the son of Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane, is contesting as an independent in northeastern Goa. This followed a big row against allocating more than one Congress ticket to a family, and media criticism that the Congress had put up only a token candidate to subvert its own rule.
The Congress has also protested against the deletion of genuine voters from the electoral rolls, a trend it blames on BJP's half-decade in power here.
With no big states in the picture, elections in Goa, which has a population of only 1.4 million, has grabbed attention this time.
BJP leader L.K. Advani spoke to a small audience in the heart of Panaji this week while former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda undertook the unusual action of protesting on the streets of Goa after his party workers were seized with about Rs.1 million -- which authorities suspect to be slush money.
© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service
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