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THE BJP's brinkmanship in the recently concluded assembly elections in Goa came to a nought. With bombastic claims and high sounding rhetoric, the BJP was visualising an increased support from the people of Goa, hoping to become the ruling party. The BJP was obviously pinning its faith on the so-called wave of sympathy for Vajpayee after the defeat of his government's confidence vote due to the AIADMK's withdrawal of support. The Goa elections have shows that such a wave of sympathy simply does not exist and the people have judged the BJP for its performance in its 13 months as the ruling party.

Unable to stomach this stark reality, BJP leaders have come out with a diabolic reasoning for their electoral debacle. According to them, the BJP lost because the majority of Goa's electorate is non-Hindu. Not very surreptitiously, they are suggesting religious affiliation as the basis for political preference. This is nothing but a blatant effort to use religious sentiments for political gains. This is against the law of the land as ruled by the Supreme Court. The Election Commission should take cognisance of such efforts of the BJP. Having failed to garner people's support on the basis of their policies or performance, the RSS-led BJP is falling back on its poisonous communal campaign of spreading hatred against minorities as the only basis for its political survival.