by Nirmala Carvalho

Nationalist Congress Party and allies take the majority. But in order to govern they are in need of the support from small parties. The population demands that primary needs are addressed, in a nation where only those in power see the benefits of economic growth.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) –The Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp) has been defeated in June 2nd elections in Goa, gaining only 14 of the 40 seats.  The former ruling party lost out to the Nationalist Congress Party which took 19 seats.  But in order to govern, Congress now needs the support of the smaller independents who gained one or two seats.

Rebel Congress leader and former chief minister Churchill Alemao now leader of a prominent small party "Save Goa Front, said "no party will be in a position to form the next government in Goa without my support”. No seat for the Janata Dal (S), led by the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.  The party was aiming for the vote of the migrant population, particularly the Kannadigas.

But the situation is changeable: independent Vishwajit Rane has already announced he will support the Congress Party.

In the small state (1.35 million inhabitants) the north is a predominately a Hindu Goan bastion voting for the BJP and the South a Congress stronghold with a majority of Christian population. This time however, the BJP had given tickets to Catholic candidates in the South hoping to cause a dent in the Congress votes.

Heavy weights campaigned during this election with Congress president Sonia Gandhi visiting Goa twice during the campaign and the BJP's election campaign launched by the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani

Professor Olivinho Gomes, ex-Dean of Goa University told AsiaNews “The people of Goa have voted on issues and we expect the new government’s first and top priority to be ‘Responsiveness to the Common Man’s needs and wishes which are uninterrupted power supply, water and roads”. “India’s growth risks creating a huge social divide”.  “There is a lot of restlessness at the grassroots level which is being manifested indifferent ways in different parts of the country like Nandigram, and the recent trouble in Rajasthan. Systems are failing and the country needs to meet the basic needs of its teeming millions and not pamper the elite few, who currently enjoy the booming economic power that India is perceived to be”.

In the former Portuguese colony there have been more than 15 different governments in less than 17 years.

 

• India
• Goa
• elections
• BJP
• Hindu
• Christian
• economic
• divide
• government