In a setback to the Goa BJP ahead of Assembly elections , Calangute MLA and Minister Michael Lobo — the party’s most prominent Catholic face—on Monday quit the party and resigned from his legislative and ministerial posts.
According to sources, the Minister for Ports and Waste Management is likely to join the Congress.
A two-time legislator from Calangute, Mr. Lobo has been vocal in his criticism of the BJP led by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for some time now.
Speaking after resigning from his primary membership of the party, he said he would never have quit had the late Manohar Parrikar (former Chief Minister) been alive. He alleged that the current BJP leadership was sidelining grassroots loyalists like himself while giving priority to ‘outsiders’ who had been recently inducted into the party fold.
Parrikar, he stated, was a very tall leader. Despite differences, the late Chief Minister had always been open to ideas and respected the thoughts of those who expressed different opinions.
“One the one hand, I feel very sad for leaving a party with which I have been associated for the last 15 years… If the BJP does not want a worker like me, there is no point in me staying there to be humiliated. No one [in the current BJP leadership] seems bothered with the issues I wish to highlight. So, rather than the BJP throwing me out, it is best that I exit gracefully,” he observed. He was upset with the way in which he and his followers were being treated by the current leadership, he noted.
In a thinly-veiled response to Mr. Lobo’s resignation, Mr. Sawant said, “A few defections, to fulfil the agenda of greed and personal interests, cannot deter the BJP’s agenda of good governance.”
Mr. Lobo becomes the third minority MLA and the first BJP Minister to quit ahead of polls.
BJP’s strategy
According to observers, Mr. Lobo’s exit is in line with the BJP’s stratagem in this election of consolidating the Hindu majority bloc while sidelining the Catholic Christians.
Last month, two minority BJP MLAs – Alina Saldanha and Carlos Almeida – quit the party to respectively join the AAP and the Congress.
Ms. Saldanha, MLA from Cortalim who had served as a Minister in the Parrikar-led Cabinet, resigned citing “loss of principles” within the present party and criticising it for pursuing “destructive, anti-people policies” and creating “bedlam” in the State.
Mr. Almeida, a two-time MLA from Vasco da Gama, had been unhappy after his suggestion to the party’s top brass to continue Mr. Parrikar’s policy of giving adequate representation to minorities was not taken seriously.
According to an analyst, Mr. Lobo’s exit could pose a problem for the BJP’s chances in the Bardez sub-district, where the party has four MLAs. “Besides his own constituency of Calangute, Mr. Lobo also has considerable influence in the neighbouring areas of Saligao, Siolim and Mapusa,” he said.
On Sunday, Mr. Lobo was seen campaigning for Kedar Naik, probable Congress candidate from Saligaon.
Last month, his wife, Delilah Lobo, had kick-started her own campaign in the Siolim constituency (in north Goa) even as the BJP was considering former Minister Dayanand Mandrekar as its candidate for that seat.
