By Marcellus D’Souza

Mar 23: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is second time unlucky in Goa. Although it may have opened its electoral account by winning the Benaulim and Velim seats, it has come a cropper in the rest of 37 seats where it put up candidates. This included its chief ministerial candidate, Amit Palekar. AAP had not forged an alliance with any other party in the recently concluded elections.

In 2017, it had a complete washout in its debut election. Though, in the Goa Zila Parishad polls that followed Hanzel Fernandes won from Benaulim with a margin of 434 votes. Arvind Kejriwal had then tweeted: “This is just the beginning”.

Arvind Kejriwal announced a slur of freebies during the campaign. His biggest announcement was of giving 300 watts electric supply of free power supply 24/7. This was announced under the “Kejriwal guarantees” for Goa. The other guarantees included “filling of 3000 vacancies for ST; free medical treatment; education up to graduation; the Forest Right Act would have been implemented under which ownership of land would have been given to the people of Scheduled Tribes; financial assistance of Rs 1,000/- to every ST woman, children from ST communities will be able to get a government job or a job in the private sector will be provided, and till the job was not found, financial assistance of Rs 3,000/- per month will be provided”.

When asked how would APP give free power? Arvind Kejriwal offered an elaborate rational which seemed plausible. He even deputed Delhi’s Power Minister Satyendar Jain to debate the issue with Nilesh Cabral, former power minister in the outgoing Pramod Sawant government. The general consensus after the debate was that Nilesh Cabral was not prepared and cut a sorry figure.

Later, Cabral said, “that freebies like the one promised by AAP put a huge burden on the state exchequer. While the BJP government in Goa would not provide free electricity, it would continue to supply it at highly subsidised rates”. Kejriwal had travelled to Curchorem to see for himself how the consumers were being given so-called inflated bills. Finally, the results indicated that Nilesh Cabral had won Curchorem with a margin of 672 votes defeating his nearest Congress rival, Amit Patkar, (INC) and AAP candidate Gabriel Fernandes. Ironically, these are the same people who complained to Kejriwal about the inflated power bills.

During the campaign, Arvind Kejriwal had spoken about “alternative politics” ideology. He had announced that the chief minister would be from the dominant Bhandari Samaj community while his deputy would be from the minority Catholic community. But these announcements were not acceptable by the people.

Did Arvind Kejriwal dominate the campaign? Was Amit Parlekar dwarfed by the presence of Arvind Kejriwal and did not take many questions in public. Was the protest undertaken by Amit Parlekar outside the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa to protest the illegal construction of a bungalow by BJP MP Shaina NC seen as a gimmick? Or did AAP’s choice of candidates need fine tuning?

AAP could not shirk off its Delhi-centric image. Its messaging was seen as being very Goa-centric. Arvind Kejriwal relied heavily on AAP’s Delhi model. He continuously denounced the policies of the Pramod Sawant government. His apparent hate for the BJP was evident and was disliked by the electorate.

The saving grace for AAP was the victory of Venzy Viegas from Benaulim and Cruz Silva, who won the Velim constituency seat. Venzy Viegas’ success could best be described as historic as Venzy defeated a 4-time MLA from Benaulim, Churchill Alemao. In Velim, Cruz Silva, polled 5390 votes or 23.04 % of the vote share and felled two former MLAs, Filipe Nery Rodrigues and Benjamin Silva, besides Congress candidate Savio D’Silva.

Amit Palekar who stood from the Santacruz constituency, as the chief ministerial candidate, was defeated by Rodolfo Fernandes (INC) by 8,841 votes and received 38.97% of the votes share.

Kejriwal, may have opened AAPs account in Goa but still holds the ambition of forming government in Goa in Five years. Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva will have to infuse the narrative if they plan to re-establish the party and make it more Goan centric and friendly.