With the return of the President of India Mr A P J Abdul Kalam, from his 14 day four nation tour this evening Saturday 4th June 2005 , the three month President's Rule introduced since the 4th March 2005 will come to an end.
The notification to this is expected any moment even before the results are out on Sunday 5th June 2005 according to sources in New Delhi this writer has contacted. One of the reasons for the immediate revocation of President's Rule is that during the recently concluded bye-elections to the five assembly constituencies the Goa Legislative Assembly House was placed under suspended animation, and to enable the new combine to stake claim to form the Government following the results that pour in it would obviously be advisable to revoke the suspension as well. Ironically when this writer contacted some party workers from the erstwhile United Legislative Alliance viz; the Indian National Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party atleast the NCP workers were clear that the ULA does not exist any longer. The MGP were a confused lot and were uncertain of their stand. The UGDP is in a piquant situation in that one of their members Mr Mathany Saldhana has till date extended its support to the BJP while the other Mr Francisco Monte Cruz has made it clear that if elected he will extend support to the INC. Whatever the claims the fact remains that new permutations and combinations will come in play. While the BJP is clear on its Chief Ministerial candidate the INC seems to have now settled for Pratapsing Raoji Rane as its CM until the time of writing. But the BJP though had on an earlier ocassion mentioned that it would prefer to sit in the Opposition may have different thoughts if the verdict is not in their favour. As a matter of fact the five candidates in the fray for the BJP are literally political lightweights owing their winnability or otherwise on the Party and not in their individual capacity unlike those in the INC who have staked their individual capacity rather than party ideology. Therefore this bye election result will be a litmus test to ascertain the base of the BJP and their next moves based on the % of votes polled. One thing is clear this time that for the INC the young legislators and first timers will demand their pound of flesh and the seniors in the party or ex ministerial candidates of two or three years standing could be asked to make --- the "supreme sacrifice" to rejuvenate the party if it succeeds in forming the Government. GODFREY J I GONSALVES BORDA MARGAO GOA __________________________________________________________ Free antispam, antivirus and 1GB to save all your messages Only in Yahoo! Mail: http://in.mail.yahoo.com