the goan I network
PANAJI
As has often been the case, the Congress billed as a formidable electoral challenger to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, is juggling through internal pulls and pushes of its various factions to finalise its candidates for the April 23 elections to the two Lok Sabha and three Assembly bye-poll seats.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president, Girish Chodankar, figures in the list of probables for both the Lok Sabha seats. Also in the race for the South Goa seat is former two-term MP Francisco Sardinha and former State law commission member Cleofato Coutinho. In North Goa, former Union Law Minister Ramakant Khalap and former legislator, Jitendra Deshprabhu.
On Sunday, the party’s screening committee met in Delhi and deliberated on the names for the two parliamentary seats. Also on the radar were names of probable candidates for the three Assembly by-poll seats - Mandrem, Mapusa and Shiroda - voting for which is slated to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections on April 23.
GPCC’s chief spokesperson, Sunil Khawtankar told The Goan that deliberations on ticket distribution for the three assembly by-poll seats and the two Lok Sabha seats were held in Delhi on Sunday after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
He said nothing of the discussions that took place at the Central Screening Committee meeting on Sunday has been conveyed to the Goa leadership but asserted that the party’s candidates will be finalised and announced within the next 4-5 days.
The single largest party since the Assembly elections in 2017, the Congress has for long been playing the ‘victim’ card and blaming the BJP of using the Governor’s office to deny it the first shot at government formation.
It has however suffered setbacks since. First, Vishwajit Rane crossed floors weeks after the March 2017 Assembly results and more recently its MLAs - Subhash Shirodkar (Shiroda) and Dayanand Sopte (Mandrem) - also quit their membership of the House to switch sides.
The developments deprived the party of its ‘single largest party’ tag which it however regained after the death of former Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza.
Now, the party has the opportunity to exact revenge in the April 23 by-polls where three seats are at stake and wait for the results on May 23.
