After Steven Obeegadoo claimed that he was heading towards the MSM because 80 per cent of his supporters wanted it, now it’s Alan Ganoo’s turn. Claiming that the majority within his party also supported hopping into bed with the MSM, Ganoo has let loose a trial balloon to pique the interest of the MSM. Both men have spent too long in the MMM and have internalised the tendency to impose unpopular and politically incoherent alliances on their parties claiming that that is the will of their supporters. 

The shenanigans of these smaller parties and offshoots should not come as much of a surprise: this has long been established as their modus operandi. The ultimate MMM offshoot was of course the MSM, that broke away and then succeeded in surviving. The reasons for its success, however, were a set of circumstances that cannot be replicated: an ethnic cleavage within the MMM, the collapse of the old Labour Party and Anerood Jugnauth splitting off from his party while he was prime minister allowing him to use the state and its resources to attract and buy political support to cobble together an enduring party. 

Other breakaway factions do not enjoy these advantages. Without any means to guarantee their survival or attract support on their own, they appear quickly and disappear just as quickly. The brief flowering of their groupuscules taking place in circumstances that no one quite understands, while its leaders embark on pure office-seeking (but not very politically coherent) strategies constantly on the lookout to join larger formations willing to have them. Does one remember the MTD set up by Anil Bachoo, Sanjeet Teeluck and Simadree Virahsawmy? It was set up by former Labour Party politicians sticking it out with the MSM and unwilling to follow Labour Leader Satcam Boolell into the wilderness of the opposition from where they thought that Boolell would not be able to challenge the MSM. They soon returned to the Labour Party when its chances looked bright again under Navin Ramgoolam. Echoes of this are taking place today with the MMM. Who would remember the RPR set up by Rama Sithanen and Sheila Bappoo who broke away from the MSM? Both quickly joined Labour. Or the MMSM of Madan Dulloo, who today sits in the MMM? The Plateforme Militante and the Mouvement Patriotique (MP) join that long list of flashes in the pan. Ganoo may have made history by being the first speaker of parliament to dump the horsehair wig in 1982, but in terms of his political strategies, he is treading a path well-worn by others.
 
Ganoo’s case however is especially contradictory. No one quite knows why he left the MMM in the first place, aside of course from the MMM trying to blame him for stitching up the disastrous coalition with Labour in 2014. But soon after putting together the MP in 2016, it imploded with Joe Lesjongard and Raffick Sorefan jumping ship to the MSM and Kavi Ramano leaving the party and staying as an independent MP. Now with Ganoo himself looking like he is plumping for a shotgun marriage with the MSM, the question is, were Lesjongard and Sorefan right all along? Surely some in the MP would be wondering that if their party was going to end up with the MSM anyway, why on earth did they spend the last couple of years in the opposition when they could have been tasting the fruit of power all this time?  Another question: what exactly is the disagreement between Ganoo and Ramano about since both look like they will end up in the same place? 

One can see why poor old Barbier is left confused.