The Trinamul Congress was left high and dry on the west coast, failing to win any seat in Goa and its alliance partner rubbing salt into the wound by abandoning ship with its two seats and pledging support to the BJP.
Trinamul managed barely 5.21 per cent of the (provisional) vote share in the 26 seats it contested.
“We accept this mandate with all humility. We commit ourselves to work harder to earn the trust and love of every Goenkar. No matter how long it takes, we will be here and we will continue to serve the people of Goa,” the state’s Trinamul unit tweeted.
Although Trinamul’s foray into Goa began only three months ago, it had been kicked off by none other than Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, spearheaded by her nephew and party No. 2 Abhishek Banerjee and counselled by poll consultant Prashant Kishor. The party secured 49,480 of the 9.5 lakh votes polled in the state.
Bengal Trinamul leaders such as Krishnagar MP Mahua Moitra and Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien also played key roles, besides some sons and daughters of the soil who the party weaned into its fold in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
The coastal state was won once again by the BJP, which got 33.31 per cent of the vote share and 20 seats. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), with whom Trinamul had tied up, bagged two seats and 7.6 per cent of the vote share. The MGP has now declared support to the BJP, which has also claimed the backing of three Independents.
Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP’s in-charge for the Goa polls, said on Thursday night: “We’ve won 20 seats. The MGP has given us a letter of support. Three Independent MLAs have also supported us. So now we are 20+3+2=25. There is a possibility that more candidates will join us. So we are forming the government.”
Trinamul national vice-president Partha Chatterjee said his party could not be held responsible for the MGP’s decision. “Fulfilment of expectations is not always about winning seats or vote share, but about reaching the masses, making a mark in a state where we had no presence till a few months ago,” he said.
Since the BJP on its own is only one short of the majority mark of 21 and has received the support of five more MLAs, it will have 25 seats and looks set to form the government. In 2017, the BJP had formed the government through alleged horse-trading and Raj Bhavan-led political manoeuvres despite securing 13 seats to the Congress’s 17.
This time, the Congress has won only 11 seats and 23.46 per cent of the votes, while its alliance partner Goa Forward Party pouched one seat and 1.84 per cent of the vote share. AAP pocketed two seats, with 6.77 per cent of the votes polled in its favour. The remaining seat went to the Revolutionary Goans.
Trinamul had tried but failed to stitch a much larger alliance and approached even the Congress at one point, but it was rejected by all but the MGP. That the MGP was not going to be a reliable ally became clear when it started parleys with both the Congress and the BJP after the exit polls, leaving Trinamul in the lurch.
“We dug ourselves an unnecessary grave in Goa, all in the name of being directed by the new and the young. Now we must lie in it,” said a Trinamul senior, not known to be a fan of the Abhishek-Kishor clique.
The old guard, purportedly right up to the Trinamul chief herself, has been displeased for some time about the Goa foray, which was predictably not going to yield much for the party. The state, according to several Trinamul sources, was picked by Kishor and backed by Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek.
“What need there was to go across the breadth of the country to a state that we were completely alien to, squandering resources that we could barely afford, and repeatedly making lofty claims that were always likely to render us a laughing stock… only that duo (Abhishek and Kishor) might be able to explain,” a Trinamul MP said.
According to him, Mamata had realised quickly how badly the Goa venture would pan out. He said Mamata never fully approved the Goa plan anyway, and disliked the idea as politics in the western state is “money-driven, not ideology-driven”.
“That is why she simply stopped going after two trips, after mid-December. That is why, midway, she even tried steering the Goa venture in a completely different direction by approaching the Congress for an alliance. But the Congress refused,” he said.
A minister, deemed a member of the old guard, said Goa was one of several factors responsible for the recent, unprecedented internal crisis in Trinamul that caused a deterioration in Mamata and Abhishek’s relationship, with Kishor almost being fired.
“The Goa debacle is likely to further diminish the AB-PK clique’s eroding clout in the party,” he said.
“Now all we are left with from our Goa experiment is a septuagenarian in the Rajya Sabha whose political career we tried in vain to resurrect, that too from Bengal’s share of seats,” the minister added, referring to former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, who switched to Trinamul before Durga Puja last year after four decades in the Congress.