the goan I network
MARGAO
Just two days to go for the April 23 polling for the South Goa seat, and the Congress is facing a challenge of sorts to ensure a huge turn-out of voters in its Salcete stronghold to keep the party in good stead in the election.
Bereft of any cadre-based organization as evident by the fact that the party could not even arrange a single election meeting in Benaulim Assembly segment, party leaders are keeping their fingers crossed over the turn out of voters on April 23, hoping that voters will come out to vote on their own and turn their anger into votes.
That party candidate and three-time former MP Francisco Sardinha has been harping at every meeting that a huge turn-out of votes is a pre-condition for the party’s success is seen as an appeal by the candidate to the party well-wishers and sympathizers to come out and cast their vote on April 23.
In fact, Sardinha had made it a point to tell the people at every election time that if they go to the worship God at the Churches, Temples and Mosques on their own, why can’t they all come in a similar manner to cast their vote. “I am confident that people across the constituency will come out and give vent to their anger against the
ruling dispensation’, Sardinha added.
While political observers say that Salcete is expected to go the Congress way this time round, the only worry for the Congress camp appears the turn-out of the voters. Congress leaders, including Digambar Kamat, are of the firm opinion that ground reality is conducive for the party to score big in Salcete on the lines of the 2017 Assembly election, provided party workers get the voters out on the polling day.
“I have moved around Salcete taluka, addressing meetings of party candidate Francisco Sardinha. My reading of the political situation is that people are ready to vote for the Congress. The
Congress will regain the South Goa seat if the party’s traditional segments such as Cuncolim, Velim, Curtorim, Nuvem etc give huge leads”, Kamat said.
Party insiders, however, say that the party can strike big only if the party workers manage to get the voters out and ensure huge voting on the polling day.
As things stand today, Congress leaders are banking on the six party MLAs, Digambar Kamat, Luizinho Faleiro, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Reginaldo Lourenco, Clafacio Dias and Wilfred D’Sa to activate their workers and ensure they get people out for voting.
It’s still unclear how the party will go about the situation in Fatorda and Benaulim segments represented by the Goa Forward and NCP respectively, even as district Congress Chief Joe Dias maintained that party workers from these two segments are working on
the ground to ensure a huge turn out.
