The General Elections in Goa

Abstract

Few election results in India have caused a greater sensation than the results of the elections held in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu in December 1963. In the first democratic elections ever held in the former Portuguese possessions, the Congress Party, which claimed to be the principal architect of liberation, was completely routed, securing only one seat in the 30-member legislative assembly, and that too from Daman rather than Goa proper. In Diu an independent candidate supported by the Praja Socialist Party was successful, while the 28 seats in Goa were shared by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak and the United Goans parties. The former, which wants immediate merger of Goa with the adjoining State of Maharashtra on the basis of linguistic affinity and which had a working alliance with the Praja Socialist Party, secured 16 seats; the United Goans Party, a Union of four Roman Catholic parties, which advocates statehood for Goa within the Indian Union, captured the remaining twelve. Both the seats allotted to the Territory in the Union Parliament were annexed by the pro-merger Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. These results were wholly unexpected. The Congress leaders, who had been confident of securing a majority and of forming the first elected government of the Territory, were rudely shaken. Barely twenty-four hours prior to the poll, K. K. Shah, then General Secretary of the Congress, claimed that his party would carry 18 seats while the remaining 12 would be equally shared by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak and the United Goans parties.' But even the victors must have been surprised at their success because the leaders of both opposition parties had, in their last minute assessments, conceded a majority to the Congress. The voters obviously had other ideas, however, and in exercising their franchise had helped set up the first non-Congress government in an Indian state since Kerala returned the Communists to power in 1957. It has also made obsolete the view that favored postponement of the decision on the future political set-up of the Territory 'until the economy of the region had stabilized and until changes consequent upon merger with India were facilitated.' By lending urgency to the merger vs. statehood issue on which emotions have run high in Goa, the elections have crystallized the opposition between the two principal components of Goan society-the Hindus and the Christians. More than a half-year later, the controversy is still raging fiercely. The elections in Goa, Daman and Diu were held under the provisions of the Government of the Union Territories Act, 1963, which envisaged a