Congress has task at hand in Salcete as party braces up to retain South Goa seat

Presently, the Congress party is reduced to just one seat in Salcete after former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Aleixo Sequeira quit the party to embrace the BJP.

No doubt, Lok Sabha poll is a different ball game and the Congress has the history of bouncing back to regain lost ground in Salcete in Parliamentary elections in the recent past. 

Nonetheless, bereft of leadership and the dwindling numbers in the Legislative Assembly, with Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao being the lone MLA representing Cuncolim in Salcete, the main Opposition party indeed has a task at hand to tone up and revive the party organisation and gear the party rank and file for the May 7 battle of the ballot.

Questions on how INDIA partners will go about election campaign

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are members of the INDIA bloc stitched to take on the BJP dispensation led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Take note, however, the Congress and AAP had fought a bitter battle of the ballot for the same political space in the 2022 Assembly polls, before the Arvind Kejriwal-led party opened its account in the minority-dominated constituencies of Benaulim and Velim, relegating the Congress to the background in the scheme of things.

Having come together to keep Modi at bay, questions are raised how the two parties will go about the election campaign, more so for the South Goa seat, where the party had in just two years made deep inroads into the Congress bastions of Velim and Benaulim to emerge triumphant and will be certainly looking forward to retain the seats in the 2027 election due in three years’ time.

After staking claim for the South Goa seat initially, AAP has offered support to the Congress in its bid to retain the South Goa seat. A host of questions, right from the booth to the constituency level, however remains to be sorted out before the two parties goes about the joint campaign without damaging each other’s political interests.

Focus on which way Goa Forward moves

The regional Goa Forward Party (GFP) is not officially a part of the INDIA bloc, but has extended support to the Congress on the plea the party was the pre-election alliance partner of the Congress in the 2022 Assembly elections. Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai has already announced that the party will not support sitting Congress MP Francisco Sardinha on the plea the MP did not bless and support the Congress-GFP pact in the 2022 Assembly elections.

Questions are raised in political circles how the GFP would go about the May 7 election “ will the party extend support to the Congress in the Fatorda segment represented by party supremo Vijai Sardesai on a condition sitting MP Francisco Sardinha is not the Congress candidate.

Even assuming that the Congress fields a new candidate for South Goa, sources wonder whether the GFP will join the campaign across the constituency, or restrict its movements in Fatorda, more so when the leadership of the Goa Forward and the Congress do not see eye to eye. Again, it is to be seen how GFP will go about the election with BJP fielding Pallavi Dempo as its candidate for South Goa.

Can Cong overcome RGP’s growing presence in Salcete?

MARGAO: Has the Congress any armament in its armoury to stop the growing presence of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) in minority Salcete, is a question party leadership will have to grapple with in the run up to the May 7 Lok Sabha poll.

For, the RGP had emerged as a thorn in the flesh of the Congress party when the regional party had made deep inroads in the minority heartland, upsetting poll predictions as the party emerged as a force to reckon in the 2022 Assembly elections.

The regional party had ended its 2022 poll campaign in Salcete on an impressive note in the 2022 Assembly polls, leaving poll pundits surprised when the party left behind established players in constituencies such as Nuvem, Curtorim and Velim.

Congress leaders may again say the Lok Sabha election is an entirely different ball game.  The RGP has kicked off its campaign in right earnest. RGP South Goa candidate, Rupert Pereira, who had emerged runners up in Curtorim in the 2022 Assembly polls, made his presence felt in the Salcete and outside even as the key players are yet to finalise their candidates for the South Goa seat.

None other than the Congress leaders know for sure that the party cannot afford to leave any space for the RGP in minority Salcete, aware that any gains by the regional party once again in the minority taluka can prove costly in the overall scheme of things.