Story of Defections in Goa
By John Aguiar
Goa's political history is inseparable from the story of defections, splits, floor-crossings and political realignments. Since the first Legislative Assembly was elected in 1963, Goa has witnessed repeated instances of legislators changing political loyalties, splitting parties and altering the balance of power. On several occasions, governments have fallen or been formed without the electorate being given an opportunity to vote again.
Although defections became particularly notorious after Goa attained statehood in 1987, the phenomenon began much earlier. In fact, Goa witnessed its first major political split within the United Goans Party (UGP) in the 1960s.
The first split: UGP, 1965
The first major split in the United Goans Party occurred in 1965, when Dr. Alvaro de Loyola Furtado broke away from the Jack de Sequeira-led faction and formed the UGP (Furtado), while the parent group came to be known as the UGP (Sequeira). The division was rooted in differences over Goa's political future and the demand for statehood. The split became electorally significant after the 1967 Opinion Poll. In the subsequent 1967 Assembly elections, the UGP (Furtado) contested six constituencies but failed to win a single seat, while the Sequeira faction secured six seats.
The UGP subsequently entered the Opposition, while Dayanand Bandodkar's Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) continued to dominate Goa's political landscape.
K. B. Naik's rebellion: 1970
The next major episode came in 1970, when Shiroda MLA K. B. Naik, a prominent leader of the MGP, rebelled against Chief Minister Dayanand 'Bhausaheb' Bandodkar.
Naik led a group of seven MGP legislators who broke away from the ruling party and formed the Nava-MGP. The principal objective of the rebellion was to dislodge Bandodkar as Chief Minister. Naik himself was interested in succeeding him.
The rebellion, however, did not bring down the MGP government. Bandodkar countered the challenge by securing the support of five UGP legislators. They crossed the floor and voted in support of the government during the crucial confidence vote.
Among those associated with the UGP split was Abdul Razak, along with Elu Miranda, Valent Sequeira and Orlando Sequeira Lobo. The five UGP legislators who supported Bandodkar became part of a breakaway UGP group. The crucial vote enabled Bandodkar to survive the rebellion. A contemporary account records that the government won the confidence vote by 17 votes to 14.
Thus, the 1970 episode became one of Goa's earliest examples of a government surviving through floor-crossing and carefully engineered political realignment.
The MGP rebellion of 1979
The next major crisis occurred during the government of Shashikala Kakodkar, who had succeeded her father, Bandodkar, after his death in 1973.
In April 1979, serious differences developed within the MGP. Law Minister Shankar Laad, along with senior legislators Dayanand Narvekar and Dilkush Desai, withdrew support from Kakodkar's government and joined the Opposition.
The rebels claimed majority support and staked a claim to form an alternative government under Shankar Laad. The rebellion reduced Kakodkar's support to 13 members, while the Opposition claimed 17, including the Speaker.
The political crisis resulted in the fall of the Kakodkar government and was followed by President's Rule. It marked the end of the MGP's uninterrupted period of dominance in Goa.
The 1980 realignment
The political landscape changed dramatically in 1980. The Congress faction that had emerged under the Congress (Urs) banner had won a majority, while the MGP was reduced to seven seats.
Five MGP legislators subsequently joined the Congress, further weakening the MGP. Around the same period, the Congress (Urs) itself merged with Congress (I), reflecting how national political developments were directly influencing Goa's political equations.
There was also an attempt to merge the MGP with the Congress. Ramakant Khalap played an important role in resisting the proposed merger and preserving the independent identity of the MGP.
The 1980s: Congress dominance and new alignments
The 1980s saw the emergence of Pratapsingh Rane as one of Goa's most important political figures. Rane had earlier been associated with the MGP before moving to the Congress and subsequently becoming Chief Minister.
The decade was relatively more stable compared with the years that followed, but political realignments continued. The emergence of new regional formations and the gradual weakening of the traditional UGP and MGP structures laid the groundwork for the highly fluid politics of the 1990s.
The 1990 political earthquake
The real turning point in Goa's history of defections came in March 1990.
Congress Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane had only a precarious majority. Speaker Luis Proto Barbosa, along with six other Congress MLAs, broke away from the party and withdrew support from the Rane government.
The defectors formed the Goan People's Party (GPP) and, with the support of the MGP, formed the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) government. Churchill Alemao initially became Chief Minister. Subsequently, Luis Proto Barbosa became Chief Minister.
This was a landmark moment. For the first time, a group of legislators changed sides on such a scale that an elected government was brought down and a new government was formed without a general election.
The episode also demonstrated the limitations of the anti-defection provisions then in force. The 1985 Anti-Defection Law permitted protection where a breakaway group constituted at least one-third of the legislature party.
The PDF government itself was short-lived. When the MGP withdrew its support later in 1990, the political crisis returned and Goa eventually came under President's Rule.
The 1990s: Defection becomes a political weapon
The 1990s witnessed perhaps the most turbulent period in Goa's political history.
The Tenth Schedule, popularly known as the Anti-Defection Law, had been introduced into the Constitution in 1985 to discourage legislators from changing parties. However, the provision permitting a one-third split was frequently used by politicians to avoid disqualification.
Goa became a striking example of how the law could be circumvented through organised group defections.
The 1994–99 Assembly witnessed repeated political shifts. Governments changed, alliances were rearranged and legislators moved between parties. The instability culminated in the collapse of the Wilfred de Souza and subsequently Luizinho Faleiro governments in 1998.
The Sardinha government: 1999
The 1999 Assembly election produced a Congress majority, with the party winning 21 of the 40 seats. Luizinho Faleiro became Chief Minister.
But within months, Francisco Sardinha led a breakaway from the Congress. With BJP support, he formed the government in November 1999.
Sardinha's government lasted only about eleven months. On 24 October 2000, the BJP formed its first government in Goa under Manohar Parrikar.
Goa had entered an era in which the result of an election could no longer guarantee the stability of the government that emerged from it.
The post-2003 era: Resign, switch and return
The 91st Constitutional Amendment of 2003 abolished the one-third split provision under the Anti-Defection Law and strengthened the restrictions on defections.
But Goa's politicians soon found another route.
Isidore Fernandes became a notable example. After being elected on a Congress ticket, he resigned from the Assembly in 2004 and joined the BJP. He subsequently contested and won the by-election on a BJP ticket.
The experiment was repeated on a much larger scale in 2005. Several BJP legislators resigned from the Assembly amid a political crisis, enabling the Congress-led formation under Pratapsingh Rane to return to power.
Five Assembly constituencies went to by-elections in June 2005. Congress and its allies won four of them, while BJP retained Poinguinim.
The episode demonstrated a new method of political defection: resign from the Assembly, change party and seek a fresh mandate through a by-election.
Ravi Naik: a career across political parties
Goa's history of party switching is also reflected in the careers of individual politicians.
Ravi Naik began his political career with the MGP before joining the Congress in 1991 and becoming Chief Minister. He later joined the BJP and served as Deputy Chief Minister before returning to the Congress. In 2021, he once again joined the BJP.
His political journey illustrates the fluidity of party loyalties that has characterised Goa for decades.
Digambar Kamat and the 2005 crisis
Digambar Kamat was among the BJP's four MLAs elected in the 1994 Assembly election, when the BJP made its debut in the Goa Assembly.
In February 2005, Kamat resigned from the BJP and from the Assembly. His resignation came during a crucial political crisis and contributed to the collapse of the Manohar Parrikar government. He subsequently joined the Congress and became a minister in the Pratapsingh Rane government.
Kamat later became Chief Minister, serving from 2007 to 2012.
The post-2017 wave
The tradition of political realignment continued after 2017.
Vishwajit Rane resigned from the Congress after the 2017 Assembly election, joined the BJP and returned to the Assembly through a by-election.
Later, Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte also resigned as Congress MLAs, joined the BJP and successfully contested by-elections.
The MGP also witnessed a major realignment when Manohar Ajgaonkar and Deepak Pauskar moved from the MGP to the BJP.
The 2019 mass defection
In 2019, Goa witnessed one of its most dramatic episodes of mass defection.
Ten of the Congress's 15 MLAs merged with the BJP, reducing the Congress to just five MLAs and substantially strengthening the ruling BJP. Because the 2003 amendment had abolished the one-third split provision, the legislators relied on the constitutional provision relating to a merger, which requires two-thirds of the legislature party.
The episode became one of the most striking examples in India of the political use of the merger provision under the Anti-Defection Law.
The 2022 defection
In September 2022, Goa again made national headlines when eight Congress MLAs, including former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, joined the BJP.
It was another dramatic demonstration of Goa's continuing culture of political realignment and the extraordinary fluidity of party loyalties.
A political culture of defection
Goa's history of defections is therefore not a story that began with the Congress-BJP politics of the 21st century. It stretches back to the first decade after Liberation.
From the UGP split of the 1960s, to K. B. Naik's rebellion against Bandodkar in 1970; from the fall of Shashikala Kakodkar in 1979 to the dramatic Congress defections of 1990; from the Sardinha government of 1999 to the political crisis of 2005; and from the 2019 Congress-BJP merger to the eight-member Congress exodus of 2022, Goa has repeatedly witnessed legislators changing political sides.
The reasons have varied. Some defections were driven by ideological differences, some by internal party disputes, some by leadership ambitions and others by the prospect of power.
But the political consequence has often been the same: the arithmetic inside the Assembly has become as important as the verdict delivered by the electorate.
Goa's experience also raises an uncomfortable democratic question. When a voter elects a candidate on the symbol and programme of one political party, how far should that representative be free to change allegiance during the life of the Assembly?
The Anti-Defection Law was intended to answer that question. Yet Goa's political history shows that whenever one route to defection was closed, another was often found.
Defections have certainly demonstrated the flexibility and dynamism of Goa's politics. But they have also contributed to political instability, weakened ideological commitment and, at times, created a disconnect between the mandate given by voters and the government that eventually governs them.
The story of defections in Goa is ultimately a story about the tension between individual political ambition and the collective mandate of the electorate.
As Goa's democracy matures, the greater challenge is not merely to prevent defections through law, but to strengthen the political culture in which elected representatives remain accountable to the people who elected them.
The true strength of democracy lies not in the ability to change governments through political manoeuvring, but in respecting the mandate of the people.
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