MARGAO
Perhaps for the first time since the constituency was carved out of the erstwhile Navelim constituency a little over three decades ago, the Congress party’s Hand symbol will go missing on the ballot unit of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the ensuing 2022 election for the Fatorda constituency.
Reason: The Congress has stitched an alliance with the Goa Forward party, conceding the Fatorda seat to the regional party, in the bargain losing the Hand symbol on the EVM. Having dominated the political stage in the constituency for well around a decade and half, the 2022 Assembly polls will be perhaps the first time in the last three decades when Fatordekars will not get the opportunity to cast their vote for the Congress as the Congress-Goa Forward alliance will rule out the party in the fray for the Fatorda seat.
In the 2012 polls and again in the last election in 2017, the Congress candidates were in the fray, but had ended up in losing the elections badly, more due to indecisiveness and last minute announcement of party candidates by the party leadership. Since then, no attempts have been made by the party leadership for course correction to bring back the party’s lost glory.
A glance at the election results shows that the Congress flag flew high in Fatorda in three successive elections, beginning with the 1989 election when Scheduled Tribe leader Luis Alex Cardozo won the seat. Cardozo, popularly known as Mam in Fatorda, had retained the seat in the two subsequent polls in 1994 and again in 1999.
The Congress fort, however, crumbled for the first time in the 2002 election when the Lotus first bloomed in Fatorda, with Fatordekars electing young BJP leader Damu Naik to the Assembly. Political observers say the Congress had lost the seat more due to a vertical division of the anti-Congress vote.
The BJP retained the seat in the 2007 Assembly polls when Damu foiled a determined bid made by Vijai Sardesai to enter the Legislative Assembly on the Congress banner. Having been unsuccessful in his debut, Sardesai staked claim for the Congress ticket in the subsequent polls in 2012, but was denied the ticket by the party High Command. Instead, the party nominated senior Congress leader M K Sheikh, forcing Sardesai to throw his hat in the election ring as an Independent. Sardesai’s game plan clicked as Fatordekars rejected both the BJP and the Congress by electing him.
Before the 2017 election, Sardesai formed the Goa Forward party and offered to forge an alliance with the Congress to leave Fatorda and other seats for the regional party. After a flip flop, the Congress fielded a candidate at the eleventh hour in Fatorda, but Sardesai retained his seat though by a narrow margin.
Another jolt in Fatorda: More Congress leaders quit party
MARGAO: A group of Congress leaders including party spokesperson Dr Ashish Kamat, party RTI Cell Chairman Dominic Noronha, Charles D’Silva and Anup Borkar have quit their positions as well as from the membership of the party.
Addressing the media, Kamat said they have decided to quit the party over a host of reasons, including the party’s decision to forge an alliance with Goa Forward party chief Vijai Sardesai.
He said the alliance with the Goa Forward party was decided and settled much before Margao Municipal elections.
“Goa desk in-charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao and GPCC chief Girish Chodankar were in the loop. Hence the Fatorda Block was backstabbed. Each and every frontal organisations were directed not to support Fatorda Block in the Municipal elections. The Congress on Saturday has aligned with the past and future ally of BJP. And history will repeat once Goa Forward is lucky to get an MLA,” he said.
On the Congress leadership, Ashish said the leadership has no real ambition to cross the half way mark in the next election. He said the party leaders themselves are more interested in furthering their interests than of the Congress.
Congress RTI chief Dominic Noronha said he had submitted a vision plan to the party leadership how to build the RTI cell, but the plan never saw the light of day.
