PANAJI, AUG 14: The crucial organisational polls of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the main opposition party in the Goa assembly on August 17 is set to bring to the fore the tussle between the two main factions in the party -- one led by Union minister of State for Law and Justice Ramakant Khalap and the other headed by leader of the Opposition in the State assembly Dr Kashinath Jhalmi.

The contest for the top post promises to be a straight fight between outgoing president Surendra Sirsat and MLA Shivdas Vernekar. Sirsat is known to belong to the Khalap camp while Vernekar is close to Jhalmi. The other candidates have withdrawn from the fray.According to reports, Khalap may have an edge over his rival since he is known to have strengthened his hold over the party after becoming Union minister.

This is, however, not the first time faction fights have come to the fore in the MGP's organisational polls. A fierce dispute between Khalap and former chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar similarly dominated the previous organisational polls of the party held in the early '90s.

To a great extent these quarrels were also responsible for the MGP's waning influence in Goa with the rise of the Congress government to power in the State. The MGP's march to the seat of power has been effectively undermined by successive splits with the present Rane government using it as a convenient ``stock bank'' whenever he is in trouble from dissidents to prop up his majority.

The MGP's role to provide a strong opposition to the State has come under severe criticism in recent months. Jhalmi's own role in supporting the government in the newly passed Right to information Act which is seen as being hostile to the media, has not been taken kindly by the local press.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.