The BJP’s hard won victory in Goa was marked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a meeting of the top team of partymen who contributed to it last week. While acting Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, state BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavde, BJP general secretary in charge of Goa, C T Ravi were in the frame and known to many, an important presence was that of Satish Dhond, BJP organization secretary in Goa. Mr Dhond, low profile is being credited with executing the deft social engineering of amalgamating OBCs, the Maratha and Bhandari community support to the BJP after years of being led the Gowd Saraswat Brahmin community. A change over he executed in the absence of Goa BJP’s most important leader Manohar Parrikar to register a handsome victory for the party.
“BJP winning 20 seats in the Goa Assembly is an astounding feat and while many only look at the division of votes of the Congress by Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the fact is that the shift in vote base from GSB to more of Maratha, Bhandary and Bahujan Samaj has been significant and helped us when we lost our most powerful leader Manohar Parikkar,” said a senior Goa BJP office bearer.
