the goan I network
MARGAO
With exactly a week to go for the April 23 Lok Sabha election for the South Goa seat, bureaucrat-turned-politician Elvis Gomes has a task cut out for him “ overcome the “spoiler” tag and convince the electorate that he is in the fray to win the seat.
With the Congress intensifying its attack on the AAP state convenor that he is in the fray only to split the secular vote and benefit the BJP, Gomes faces a challenge of sorts as he braces up for the last leg of his campaign.
That Francisco Sardinha has personally led the campaign against Gomes accusing AAP of being the B team of the BJP indicates that the Congress has realized the damage the AAP can cause to its electoral prospects, especially in minority-dominated Salcete where AAP made inroads in the Congress strongholds in the 2017 Assembly election.
Take note, Gomes and AAP have hit back at the Congress with its own counter argument, but the million-dollar question that remains unanswered is whether AAP will successfully overcome the spoiler tag and take the battle in the rival camps.
So far, Gomes has sought to counter Congress’ B team and spoiler tag with facts and figures how the Congress, beginning with Francisco Sardinha, had helped the BJP and Manohar Parrikar come to power in Goa through the back door.
In fact, at every meeting, the AAP candidate reminded that Sardinha was personally responsible for bringing the BJP to power in Goa by sharing power with the saffron party after dumping the Congress government headed by Luizinho Faleiro. And, Gomes has not stopped exposing the Congress for its inability to keep its flock together and how party MLAs have been exported to the BJP over the years.
Questions, however, being raised in political circles are whether the AAP counter has helped Gomes and his party to negate the Congress’ tirade to win the seat.
Says Gomes: “The Congress has no agenda before the electorate. Sardinha and the Congress have only one agenda to label me as a spoiler and AAP the BJP’s B team. People of South Goa are no fools that they will get carried away by the Congress agenda. I want to tell the Congress and the BJP that I am in strong reckoning for the seat”.
The AAP, which had made its debut in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, had ended up its campaign with candidate Swati Kerkar polling 11,246 votes and finishing fourth. What apparently has made the Congress go after the AAP candidate in the ensuing Lok Sabha poll is the slow, but steady rise of AAP in the state, especially in minority Salcete.
Otherwise, consider this. AAP had failed to open its account in the eight Assembly seats in Salcete, with most of the party candidates losing their security deposits. But, given that the ensuing election is a Lok Sabha election, with every vote important for a candidate, the Congress appears wary of AAP’s presence in Salcete, with the party polling 21000-odd votes in all the eight Assembly segments in the last Assembly election. Congress leaders in private say that party candidate Francisco Sardinha may land in the danger zone if AAP succeeds in polling 20000 votes in Salcete.
Gomes, however, says the Congress will not succeed in its tactics. “People of Salcete or South Goa will not fall prey to the Congress propaganda. The Congress had unleashed a similar propaganda against AAP candidates in the Assembly polls, but people had voted in large numbers for the party candidate. I am confident that their propaganda will not work this time,” Gomes said, while exuding confidence of overcoming the spoiler target and win the seat.
