Advocate Pratima Coutinho, the Comeback Queen

Politics is unpredictable. The art of politicking depends upon how fast a politician can make adjustments and read the writing on the wall. 

With Goa Assembly Elections 2027 round the corner, Goa will witness a political churn. In the months leading to the Assembly Elections 2027, every politician worth his/her salt will leave no stone unturned to grab the headlines and be in the news to announce the arrival of a self-proclaimed Messiah who can deliver good days for Goa reeling under rampant atrocities.

With Advocate Pratima Coutinho’s home coming — ghar waapsi — to the grand old Congress Party, the churn has already begun. Goa’s political observers will agree that there are two set templates (while jumping ships) which every politician follows.

If a politician is making a switch from the secular brigade to the ruling party, s/he is doing so to fulfil the Viksit Bharat dream of India’s honourable prime minister. It is an act of pure selflessness devoid of any personal agenda whatsoever – carried out after taking every stakeholder into confidence – to serve the beloved motherland.

Another template is for those who join the secular parties, namely the Congress Party, Goa Forward Party, Aam Aadmi Party, NCP and so on. There is an offer from the ruling party on the table. But they declined. They chose to join or rejoin this party since they believe in the idea of India. Then, follow this up with the choicest of abuses for the ruling party while praising the secular party’s leadership – both central and local – in flattering words.

While rejoining Goa Congress, Advocate Pratima played to the gallery and followed this DIY template to the dot. There was an offer on the table to join the ruling party. But Pratima  rejected the same without fear of ED. Although she took a temporary break from the Congress Party and strayed into the AAP camp by mistake, a portrait of Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji – encased in a wooden frame – stayed hanging on the wall of her house reminding her where her roots are.

Shri Girish bab — freshly re-nominated GPCC President — is someone whom Adv Pratima looks up to as her guru. And last, but not the least, if surgeons were to surgically cut open Pratima’s veins, they would be surprised to find acid instead of blood. This rarest of rare acid – coursing through the veins of Pratima – is potent enough to destroy the ruling party if deployed in a quantity considered to be lethal according to the experts!

What a dream comeback! Pratima never Ieft the Congress party if the truth be told. She was always around. She has not re-joined her original Congress party. To be honest, she has just returned to her family. What a performance! What a melodrama! Such cheesy lines! The speech writer deserves a compliment.

When Pratima left the Congress Party for the Aam Aadmi Party in the run up to the Goa Assembly Elections 2022, she held the post of President – Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress. Now, will she work as a common Congress worker? What does life have in store for Dr Pratiksha – the incumbent Goa Pradesh Mahila Congress President? 

This homecoming of Advocate Pratima is sure to have set the cat among the pigeons. This is just the beginning. More such homecomings are on the cards in the months leading to the Goa Assembly Elections 2027.

Politicians are free to join or re-join the parties of their choice. This is par for the course given the size of Goa and its electorate. Please go ahead and align yourselves with the parties that matter the most to you. However, there is one request. Please hire a professional speech writer who gives you memorable and made-for-TV-cameras one liners that are both grammatically and phonetically correct. It will create an aura of invincibility around you and voters will take you more seriously. Elections will come and go. Parties will collapse and get rebuilt. But the lines that you deliver will have a life of their own. For example, who can forget, ‘Bhivapachi Garaz Na?’ – a line that put Goa on the national map?

Moral of the story is choose your party well but choose your words more carefully. For, words can come back to haunt you sometimes. Viva Goa!