PANAJI
The Congress on Saturday finally announced its candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa -- Ramakant Khalap for Panaji (North Goa) and Viriato Fernandes for Mormugao (South Goa).
The names of Khalap and Fernandes were part of a list of candidates released by the AICC General Secretary, K C Venugopal, on Saturday for Goa, some seats in Madhya Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Thus, the grand old party has dropped its sitting MP from South Goa, Francisco Sardinha, who won the seat thrice in past elections -- 1998, 2009 and 2019.
The Congress which is fighting the elections as part of the INDIA bloc, had got its allies -- Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Goa Forward Party (GFP), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and Shiv Sena UBT -- to agree to the proposal of fielding its candidates for both the Goa seats.
Later in the day, the Congress in Goa held a press conference where GPCC president Amit Patkar, Leader of the Opposition, Yuri Alemao, the two MLAs Carlos Alvares-Ferreira and Altone D'Costa besides Khalap and Fernandes addressed the media and vowed to defeat the BJP in both seats.
Khalap, who has a long political career spanning over five decades will face Bharaitya Janata Party's (BJP) five-time MP Shripad Naik in the North while Fernandes faces the BJP's Pallavi Dempo.
Also in the fray will be nascent State party Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) who are fielding its president Manoj Parab in the North and Rupert Pereira in the South.
Meanwhile, Patkar said, together with the support of the INDIA allies, both Khalap and Fernandes will eventually emerge victorious when the results come out in June.
He said, the party will launch its campaign on the occasion of Gudi Padva on Monday from Mapusa in the North and Lohia Maidan in Margao for the South seat.
