Margao: With the assembly elections a little over five months away, BJP and Congress are preparing for the contest on very different terms. While BJP is expected to build its campaign on performance and infrastructure, Congress is trying to turn the energy of its Goy Rakhonn Yatra into a wider narrative of legacy, land and anti-incumbency.The contrast was evident in the latest round of sparring, after chief minister Pramod Sawant asked people to question Congress about what the party had given Goa when it was in office. AICC co-in-charge Anjali Nimbalkar hit back, saying Sawant was born in a hospital and studied in a school built under Congress-era govts.Political observers, however, believe the exchange does little to raise the level of the election debate.Advocate and political commentator Radharao Gracias said both parties needed to focus on what they had done and what they proposed to do. “BJP has to say what it has done, and Congress has to say what it will do,” he said. “Instead, they are only attacking each other.”Academician and political observer Manoj Kamat said BJP could put Congress on the defensive with more substantive questions. “Congress has hardly any MLAs, no unity in the opposition, no clout in the zilla panchayat, and scarce numbers in municipal and panchayat bodies,” he said.“Even if Congress comes to office, it has no grassroots power to implement anything, and BJP will be in office at Centre.” He also questioned Congress’s ability to forge an alliance. “It cannot even build an alliance, so how will it run a govt?” he asked.Kamat said the Mhadei issue could become another challenge for Congress, particularly when Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar visits Goa.At the same time, he said Congress had issues it could use to question govt, including the state’s finances. The party could demand a white paper to establish how the schemes and incentives being announced would be sustained, as well as question govt on possible water and power shortages from Nov if Karnataka and Maharashtra face drought.“Congress should ask BJP for its way out,” Kamat said. But he felt neither side was currently addressing the concerns that matter to voters. “Instead of issues that connect with people, both are going in the wrong direction, and people will not take them seriously.”For Gracias, the bigger challenge for Congress is organisational strength and candidate selection. “People expect good administration, and that needs good MLAs, not just winnable ones,” he said.“Field candidates who have no baggage and cannot be pressured into switching sides, and tell the people that is why you chose them. If Congress does that, it will win,” he said.Advocate and political analyst Cleofato Coutinho sees Congress’s Goy Rakhonn Yatra as both its biggest asset and its biggest risk. “The yatra is about emotion and sentiment, and it appears to be building up,” he said. “But whether it will last until the elections, it’s anybody’s guess.”Coutinho said the yatra had already altered the political contest by giving it a clearer two-party character. “It is making this a BJP versus Congress fight. The divided opposition is being pushed to third place.”Kamat believes BJP begins with an advantage because of the fragmented opposition, even as Congress currently appears to have greater momentum. “Congress has the upper hand now, even though BJP has the resources,” he said, adding that one will have to wait and see “how the tide moves”.Coutinho too remained cautious about predicting the yatra’s electoral impact. “Whether it will peak and collapse, or peak and move to the next level, time will tell,” he said.
