Goa leadership questioned after lacklustre performance in ZP polls, Goa Zila Panchayat Eletion, Goa ZP election 2015, Goa Zila Panchayat Election Result
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- Last Updated: Saturday, 21 March 2015 12:16
Goa leadership questioned after lacklustre performance in ZP polls
Panaji, (IANS) A less-than-stellar performance in the zilla panchayat polls on Friday sparked a fresh round of dissent within the BJP and the ruling coalition, with a senior leader suggesting that the party may have fared better under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar, a former chief minister who is now the country's defence minister.
Out of the two zilla panchayats, spread equally over 50 constituencies, results declared on Friday, showed the BJP and its coalition partners narrowly scraping through the South Goa ZP winning 13 out of the 25 seats, while in North Goa, considered bastion of the BJP, the ruling alliance could clock only 12 seats out of 25 and will require support of at least one independent candidate to rule the North Goa ZP.
Also Read: Goa Zila Panchayat Election Result 2015..>>
The Congress as well as the Nationalist Congress Party had boycotted the poll, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led coalition government decided to hold the poll on political party lines last month.
The BJP's lackluster victory, in absence of credible opposition parties, and despite aggressive campaigning by Parrikar, two BJP Lok Sabha MPs, cabinet ministers and MLAs, has forced senior leaders to suggest that something could be wrong at the helm.
Quoting an unattached Congress MLA Atanasio Monserrate, who earlier Friday said the lackluster performance of the BJP was a result of the absence of Parrikar -- a former chief minister -- from active state politics, Francis D'Souza Deputy Chief Minister told IANS that the same could be a similar sentiment of "most of the BJP workers".
"He (Monserrate) said that 'Parrikar went to Delhi and something went wrong here. And for the next election if he does not come back, something will terribly go wrong here.' That could be a similar sentiment of most of the BJP workers...There could be a bit of merit in the argument," D'Souza said.
Before the poll, BJP leaders, both on record and off it, were convinced of sweeping victories in both zilla panchayat polls.
The deputy chief minister said the BJP would have to do a lot of soul searching because of the manner in which the ruling coalition performed even when there was no clear opposition in form of the Congress or the NCP.
"It is a very thoughtful issue. We have to examine what went wrong. What you call soul searching. Find out the reason why things have gone wrong," D'Souza said.
Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, however, defended his party's performance, but added that some of the losses had also taught the party significant lessons.
"Our coalition has won in South Goa, while in North Goa we have a queue of independents waiting to support us...We may have lost in some places, but those losses are educative and will teach us how to put things right in the future," Parsekar said.
When asked to comment on D'Souza's comment on Parrikar's absence from state politics resulting in a relatively weak performance for the BJP and the ruling coalition, Parsekar said: "It is his opinion."
The Congress, meanwhile, said the ZP poll mandate was a "policy defeat of the BJP".
"Today's result of ZP elections in Goa is a policy defeat of the BJP to hold ZP elections on party lines which saw defeat of 50 percent of BJP candidates in the state," party spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said.