The need for latest Operation Kamal

For more than two months Goa’s political atmosphere was pregnant with an imminent cloudburst of BJP-induced defections, or what is coming to be referred to nationally as ‘Operation Kamal’.

On Wednesday, it was finally executed with visible haste and the trigger, at least for the BJP, lies in the exigencies of national politics rather than the state’s. That couldn’t have been clearer when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at his Wednesday’s press conference after the formalities were done said: “Congress started the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, but I think ‘Congress Chhodo Yatra’ has started in Goa. People from across the country are leaving Congress and joining BJP.”

Wednesday’s defection of the eight Congress MLAs has helped the BJP steal a march in driving the narrative in national politics, where several parties occupying the Opposition space, including the Congress, are in a churn to take guard for the 2024 battle, a BJP leader said.

According to the leader, a former MP who did not want to be identified, the party has recently suffered setbacks in its muscular political powerplay nationally in Bihar and Jharkhand, after its success in winning back power in Maharashtra.

The trend had to be reversed and Goa, which was already a project in planning, he added.

After the Maharashtra triumph, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dumped the BJP but retained the government with a mahagathbandhan along with the RJD and Congress. Later in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren hastened a confidence vote and won it to thwart a suspected Operation Kamal attempt.

Not that there will not be any political advantages for the BJP and Sawant in particular from Wednesday’s events in Goa. The BJP-led coalition government of Sawant’s is comfortable in the numbers game with 25 on its side in the 40-member House. Nonetheless Wednesday’s improvement of the party’s own strength to 28 will diminish the bargaining power of ally MGP and the supporting independents. (BY ARRANGEMENT

WITH THE GOAN)