MARGAO
Welcome to Salcete, the minority stronghold, where the BJP has never been a force to reckon with in four out of the eight seats at stake, leaving the Congress enough space to score goals to help the party increase its tally in the Goa Legislative Assembly in successive polls.
Election 2022 isn’t going to be easy for the principal opposition party. The Trinamool Congress seems to be working overtime on a systematic game plan in the minority heartland to position itself as an alternative to the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, besides others.
It’s little around three months that the TMC had made its presence felt in Salcete, but the party has already signed in big players such as Congress veteran Luizinho Faleiro, NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, and now Congress’s three-time MLA Reginaldo Lourenco. And, not to mention UGDP president Dr Jorson Fernandes in Cuncolim, Valanka Alemao for Navelim, Adv Antonio Clovis Da Costa in Velim, Ethel Lobo and Adv Seoula Vas in Fatorda, besides Raju Jose Cabral in Nuvem.
The party had been in touch with Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai, first with a proposal to merge the regional party and then with an offer to join the alliance along with the MGP. In fact, on a day when Mamata Didi was on Dando grounds, Benaulim, to welcome the Churchill-Valanka duo in the TMC, the party’s poll managers were on the Dovondem bandh to explore the possibility of the regional party joining the alliance, before the party chief opted for a tie-up with the Congress.
With big names in its ranks, the TMC seems to have overnight become challengers for the Congress in its traditional stronghold. If TMC Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro is expected to hold the Navelim fort for the Congress, the party is expected to bank on NCP-turned-TMC MLA Churchill to win the Benaulim seat, besides the Navelim seat.
TMC sources say the party is presently assessing the ground situation in some of the constituencies in Salcete, whether the existing players are capable enough to win the seats before taking a call to rope in new players for the ensuing battle.
Says a political commentator: “We cannot say at this stage which party will win how many seats. At this moment, we cannot also say how the party will react to the TMC’s moves to rope in MLAs from the Congress and other parties. One thing, however, is clear that the TMC is preparing ground and bracing up for a big battle in Salcete in the coming polls.”
