Panaji (Goa)

We are thankful to Fr Victor Ferrao of Rachol Seminary who has brought this details about the run up for the Opinion Poll. We bring to you the walk down the memory lane penned by Fr Ferrao.

• 1952 states were created on linguistic basis in independent India.
• This led to a thinking that the future of Goa can be decided on the basis  of language 
• Hence, Goans were divided  into two camps: Marathi and Konkani 
• Marathi camp thought that Konkani was a dialect of Marathi 
• Konkani camp thought that Konkani was an independent language 
• The Marathi camp was mainly led by MGP (Dayanad Bandodkar) 
• The Konkani camp was mainly led by UG ( Dr. Jack Sequira) 
• The first assembly  of Goa after its liberation was formed in 1963
• Of the 28 MLAs  from Goa, MGP had 16 and UG got 12.
• 2 independents came from Daman and Diu respectively composing a house of 30 legislators
• Dayand Bandodkar had not contested the election but the wining MGP legislators decided to invite him to lead the party by becoming the CM. He was to get elected  in a span of six months. 
• Dr Jack Sequira become the leader of opposition 
• The MGP  Government passed a resolution on 22 Jan 1965 to merge Goa with Maharashtra 
• UG and Congress opposed the resolution of merger everywhere in Goa
• 10th March 1965 Maharashtra Assembly passed a resolution in favour of merger of Goa into Maharashtra 
• Later on 12th and 15th March 1965 the Karnataka assembly opposed the resolution of the Maharashtra assembly and proposed that Goa could stay as an union territory for ten years and  after could decide on the merger Issue
•  The UG Party opposed merger on all counts . There was no question of merger after ten years for them
• MGP stood firm on merger into Maharashtra
• The Maharashtra ministers in the central government favoured the merger and pressurized the Government with their resignation if the Government did not allow the merger of Goa.
• 17 April 1965 the anti-mergerist gathered in Margao and put up a massive show of strength.
• 27 April 1965  the mergerist organised a seminar on the merger of Goa in Panjim 
• Meanwhile in MAY 1964 P. Jawaharlal Nehru died and Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Prime Minister (1964-1966)
• Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the cabinet decided to  solve issue once for all through voting.
• Unfortunately, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Russia  and on 14th Jan. 1966 Indira Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister of our country. 
• The central Government resolves to conduct opinion poll on 16th Jan. 1967.
• Dayanand Bandodkar resigns as CM OF Goa to allow Goans to conduct free and fair voting for the opinion poll.
• The mergerist camp consisted of MGP, Goa congress splitter group, Bharotiya Communist Poksh, Maharashtra Vilikornn Agadi, Proza Samajvadi Poksha. Jansongh, Raxtriya Savaysevak Sangh. 
• Anti-mergerist camp consisted of UGP, Goa congress splitter group, vilinikoron virodhi agadhi, Mumbaicho United Goans Party.
• Goan Tiatrists played a major role to mobilize the masses. They included Conception – Nelson – Anthony ani Rom, Rem & Rod, modi Remmy Colaco, M.Boyer, Anthony D`Sa, X Cabral, Carmo Rod
• Media was also divided into two camps. The Marathi daily Gomantak was with the mergerists besides Gomatvanni and Pradeep. The anti-mergerists were supported by Rastramot in Marathi, Navhindtimes (English daily), Goa today (english monthly), Avida  (daily Portuguese), o herald (daily

Portuguese), sot (Romi Konkani)

• Finally Goans had to choose ‘full kai pan’ ( rose or leaf ) rose was for merger and leaf was for anti-merger 
• 82 percent votes were polled on the opinion poll day 
• 17th Jan. 1967 the counting began at institute Menezes Braganza and continued for three days . 
• On the first day counting was done of 11 constituencies, it seemed that the rose was blooming. Mergerists had lead of 10,000 votes.
• The second day the lead of mergerists reached 20,000 votes but by evening Salcelte was taken up for counting and things reversed. 20 constituencies were counted on that day and anti-mergerists took a lead of 8888 votes
• On the third day (19th Jan.1967) the counting ended at 2 O Clock. by that time the UGP had got 30,000 lead and merged victor and save the uniqueness of Goa
• 19 December and 19th  Jan. emerged as important days for Goans . 
• The Goa  won the opinion poll because of the unity of the Goan Catholics and the Hindus.