Had to fall in line, accept induction of Congress lawmakers: Goa BJP chief

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Goa chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade on Thursday said the ruling party’s state unit had to fall in line and accept the induction of eight Congress lawmakers a day earlier as the central leadership approved the move.

“The BJP is a central party. Such a big decision cannot be taken by the local unit. This decision was taken at the central level. The eight who joined met the central leadership,” Tanavade said after a BJP core committee meeting, where the panel’s members were briefed about the induction.

Tanavade said he was a victim of the betrayal by Digambar Kamat, one of the eight, when asked about the former chief minister’s induction. Kamat defected from the BJP to Congress in 2005 and brought down then Manohar Parrikar-led BJP government. Parrikar called it one of the most painful episodes of his political career

“I was also a victim because I was an MLA [member of legislative assembly]…if that government had been allowed to complete the full five-year term, I would still be an MLA. That is now history. Now that the party has inducted him [Kamat]…we have to accept the decision.”

He said that had the proposal for the induction come to him, he would probably have said no. “But the proposal did not come to me. But it is not a surprise. We are a national party. When the party leadership asks that something be done, you have to listen and get it done. Once you are told something, then you cannot afford to think whether you agree with it or not.”

Tanavade said they were supposed to join in July but could not get the numbers to avoid disqualification. “A central minister too was in the state [then]. …they came together again and approached the central leadership, which told us that their entry has to be expedited, so they were inducted…”

The BJP core committee asked the state leadership to hold meetings between the inductees and the party workers in their constituencies even as many of them do not see eye to eye.

The Congress lawmakers joined BJP in the latest in a series of defections from the opposition party days after Rahul Gandhi kicked off a 3,700 km-long foot march to revive its flagging electoral fortunes amid internal turmoil.