MARGAO
Joaquim is once again bidding to make a comeback in Cuncolim, but his close aide-turned-foe Clafacio Dias has emerged as his strong challenger for the Congress ticket.
In the 2012 election, Clafacio has been a prominent face on Joaquim’s platform seeking support for two-time Cuncolim MLA. Post-2012, both are now locked in a fierce battle for Cuncolim Congress ticket. Their bitter rivalry has virtually divided the Congress support base, even as the duo has vowed to contest the coming Assembly election with or without the Congress ticket.
That Clafacio has emerged as Joaquim’s main challenger for the ticket is evident by the fact that his candidature has got the backing of Congress President, Luizinho Faleiro. On the other hand, Joaquim is banking on his Delhi contacts to secure the ticket, but his candidature has not found favour with the Cuncolim block panel either which has adopted a resolution to nominate a Congressmen hailing from the constituency for party ticket.
Questions are being raised in Cuncolim political circles over what went wrong between Joaquim and Clafacio post-2012 election. It’s an open secret that Clafacio had been waiting for some time to test the political waters in the Assembly election having established his base in the villages in the Zilla Panchayat elections. A former South Goa Zilla panchayat chairperson, Clafacio later got his wife elected to the ZP body. In the 2015 ZP election, Clafacio again made his mark by getting his candidate Manjusha Gaonkar elected by getting the better of candidates fielded by Joaquim Alemao and others.
Says Clafacio: “Joaquim had promised me during the 2012 election campaign that he would make way for me in Cuncolim. He had told this in presence of my supporters at Paroda that 2012 would be his last election. Joaquim has now gone back on his word, and my supporters have requested me to stake claim for the Congress ticket and contest the election. I want to bring about development in the villages in the constituency”.
Joaquim, however, begged to differ. “Where’s the question of promising Clafacio that 2012 would be my last election. After my defeat in 2012 election, I had told Clafacio and other supporters on my birthday that I would contest the 2017 election. Anyway, it is democratic right of any person, whether it’s Clafacio or anyone else to contest an election. I have no issue if he has staked claim for the ticket.”
Clafacio does not deny the fact that Joaquim had expressed his intention on birthday to contest the 2017 election, but he hastened to add that he along with his close aides had categorically conveyed their resentment to Joaquim’s plan to throw his hat in the electoral ring again.
