Kuncalienkar and Monserrate front-runners, Naik and Velingkar potential to upset electoral arithmetic, Ghadi and More unlikely to have any impact
PANAJI:
With one of the independents, Anish Bacal, pulling out of the race, the May 19 Panjim bypoll will have six candidates vying for the prestigious seat including ex-MLA Siddharth Kuncaliencar of the BJP, ex-minister Atanasio Babush Monserrate of the Congress, Valmiki Naik of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and ex-Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar of the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM).
The battle for Panjim, vacated following the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar in March, will largely be between Kuncalienkar and Monserrate. Yet both Naik and Velingkar have the potential to upset the electoral arithmetic of the two front-runners.
There are two more independents - Dilip Ghadi and Vijay More - who will figure on the EVM's roster on May 19 but are unlikely to have any impact.
Interestingly, both Ghadi and More had also contested the assembly elections in 2017 in Panjim and Taleigao respectively. While Ghadi had got 36 votes in Panjim, More's tally in Taleigao was 115.
Meanwhile, with the final roster of candidates determined after the time for withdrawals ended on Thursday, the candidates are expected to up their canvassing regimens for the next 15 days before public campaigning will officially close at 5 pm on May 17.
The BJP camp is pulling out all stops and has deployed all its ministers, MLAs and top leaders to supervise and assist the campaign boothwise. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself is monitoring the campaign for the seat which is prestigious for the party as it had been represented by it since 1994 when the late Parrikar first won it.
Not to be left behind, Monserrate of the Congress too has geared up his campaigning team and opened two camp offices at Mala and Ribandar on Wednesday. Monserrate has also put councillors of his ruling panel in the Corporation of the City of Panjim on the job.
AAP's Naik meanwhile will be sticking to his party's signature door-to-door campaigning with the aid of a dedicated band of volunteers. The party said, its volunteers fanned out in the constituency since Tuesday and will hold corner meetings to sensitize voters of its plans for the city.
GSM's Velingkar meanwhile launched his campaign on Thursday morning but first paid homage to Goa's first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar at his Miramar memorial, the gates of which were however closed.
Velingkar, who headed the RSS in Goa for nearly three decades and is credited with mentoring the BJP and most of its top leaders including the late Parrikar, then jumped over the fence to fulfill his wish to pay Bandodkar homage before starting his campaign.
