Goa’s swaying palms and the golden sands suggest peace and quietude that is belied by the tumultuous events in the corridors of power. No sirree, Bob! … Goa’s politics is anything but tranquil at the moment!!

People have been concentrating a lot on the Governor’s and the Speaker’s actions. They should of course be studied and analysed. I’ll do that in a moment. But the real drama began last week with the curious incident of a party merging with the BJP and its members defecting a couple of days later. This is the action that kickstarted a series of events that eventually led to the downfall of the BJP government in Goa. On the face of it, it seems highly probable that the decision by UGDP (S) to merge with the BJP was just a ruse to circumvent some provisions of the Anti Defection Law. Even allowing for stupidity, that comes naturally to most politicians today, I cannot think of any other reason for (even) a political party to switch sides twice within two days. If you ask me, this was Congress placing its pieces on the chess-board before the end-game.

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