MARGAO
Benaulikars keep their fingers crossed over the outcome of the Sunday by-poll for the Benaulim Zilla Panchayat seat, the results of which will be out on Monday.
An uncertain future, however, stares at the Congress, but for a different reason with local party leaders and workers raising a host of questions over the party leadership’s decision to concede the Benaulim ZP seat to the Aam Aadmi Party.
One question being asked in Benaulim political circles is for how long will the Hand symbol be conspicuous by its absence on the ballot paper. Will the Congress-Aam Aadmi Party carry forward the INDI Alliance to the 2025 Zilla Panchayat polls and right up to the 2027 Assembly elections? What role do the party leadership foresee for the rank and file in Benaulim in the emerging situation and whether the leadership expects the workers to still hang on to the party when the seat is conceded to the Alliance partner under the banner of INDI Alliance.
Another crucial question that may come to stare at the party leadership is whether the Congress can ever hope to make a comeback in a constituency which was once its stronghold in the 80’s and 90’s?
These and other questions may come to haunt Congress leaders in Benaulim and outside post-by-poll results, with question doing rounds whether the party will sacrifice Benaulim at the altar of Opposition unity just to keep the INDI Alliance afloat under the guise of keeping the BJP out.
It is important to note that the Congress has not won a single Assembly election in Benaulim in the last 25 years. The last time the party won Benaulim was in the 1999 Assembly election when former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao won the seat for the party.
That’s not all. In the last 45 years, the Congress party has won Benaulim only four out of the 10 Assembly elections held during the last four decades and half, two each by former Sports Minister Monte Cruz in 1980 and 1984 and Churchill Alemao in 1989 and 1999.
Poll statistics reveal that Benaulim has been a favourite hunting ground for the regional parties. In fact, regional parties won the seat on three occasions, the United Goans Democratic Party in 1994 and in 2002 and the Goa Vikas Party in 2012. Besides, the NCP won the seat in 2007 and 2017 and the Aam Aadmi Party in 2022.
Statistics further reveal that the Congress Hand symbol had gone missing from the ballot paper in one election, the 2007 Assembly election to be precise when the party had conceded the seat to the Nationalist Congress Party MLA Mickky Pacheco as part of an Alliance.
Against this backdrop and the backdrop of the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, wherein a wave of voters from Benaulim gave Congress candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes the highest lead in South Goa, local Congressmen are asking a common question: was the party leadership justified in conceding the Benaulim Zilla Panchayat seat to the Aam Aadmi Party?
Congress down, but not out
Benaulim Congress workers are opposed to the continuance of the INDI Alliance on the ground the party is still alive and has the potential of making a comeback in the coming elections. What had boosted the morale of the Congress workers was the result of the 2024 Lok Sabha election with Benaulim giving the highest vote lead for party candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes in the recently held polls.
That’s not all. The Congress had made a stunning comeback in the 2022 Assembly election, ending its campaign behind AAP and the TMC by a small margin. In fact, Congress candidate Tony Dias had ended his spirited campaign in the 2022 Assembly election by polling 4,697 votes, finishing behind TMC Churchill Alemao by 443 votes and AAP’s Venzy Viegas by 1,714 votes.
Venzy had polled 6,411 votes against Churchill’s 5,140 to win the Benaulim seat in 2022 election.
Cong dominance in Salcete comes under a cloud as AAP eyes Navelim, Curtorim
MARGAO: Having opened its account in the Goa Legislative Assembly from the minority-dominated constituencies of Benaulim and Velim in the 2022 Assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seemed eyeing on the two minority-dominated Assembly seats of Navelim and Curtorim post-Lok Sabha polls.
In fact, with INDI Alliance leaders vowing to fight the 2027 Assembly election together, AAP leaders in private say the party will stake claim on Navelim and Curtorim in Salcete besides a couple of seats in other parts of the State.
Sources say the party had put up a good fight in the Davorlim Zilla Panchayat by-poll in 2022 before Party National leader Siddesh Bhagat went down fighting to the BJP, but not before ending his campaign by polling more votes than the Congress candidate.
Similarly, with the party making its presence felt in Curtorim, AAP leaders say the party will lay claim on Curtorim as well in the 2027 Assembly polls. Incidentally, both Curtorim and Navelim are considered open seats with the two constituencies currently represented by an Independent and BJP respectively.
Political observers say if AAP indeed lays its claim on Navelim and Curtorim, apart from Benaulim and Velim, Alliance partners, Congress and the Goa Forward will have to fight for the remaining four seats of Cuncolim, Nuvem, Margao and Fatorda.
Cuncolim and Fatorda are presently represented by Opposition leader Yuri Alemao and Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai. The remaining seats of Nuvem and Margao are presently represented by Congress turncoats Aleixo Sequeira and Digambar Kamat. Of these two seats, the Congress will certainly lay its claim on Nuvem and if sources are to be believed Goa Forward Party may be tempted to go beyond Fatorda into neighbouring Margao in 2027.
The moot question, however, remains unanswered “ will the Congress leadership be content in contesting just two out of the eight Assembly seats at stake in the taluka, which has been its power house over the years, having catapulted the party to form many a government in the recent political history.
