MARGAO
In a strange coincidence, while Parrikar had kicked off his Mission Salcete from Navelim, the constituency represented by then Salcete’s lone minister Avertano Furtado, this time he is descending at Sonsodo, located in Fatorda, represented by Salcete’s lone minister
Vijai Sardesai.
While the Chief Minister’s schedule is the visit to the Sonsodo waste dumping site, sources do not rule out the possibility of Parrikar making statements concerning Salcete or initiate steps to tone up the administration in the taluka.
Though Parrikar had descended in Margao on Sunday after taking over the reigns of office around mid-March, his weekend visit to the city was more in connection with the post mortem over the BJP’s performance in down South, where he also took the opportunity to meet the beleaguered bar owners from Salcete.
That Parrikar chose to start his campaign in Salcete from Sonsodo also indicates the importance the Chief Minister has attached to resolve the festering eyesore. Incidentally, the Chief Minster had promised to Madgavkars and Fatordekars during the election campaign that he would get rid of Sonsodo within 3-6 months time if the BJP returns to power.
The Chief Minister had been a regular visitor to Salcete post-2012 Assembly election when the BJP returned to power after decimating the Congress in Salcete taluka. That Parrikar used to hold regular meetings in Salcete with supporting partners such as then Salcete lone minister Avertano Furtado, Benjamin D’Silva and Caitu Silva is an open secret.
It’s still unclear how Parrikar will go about in his mission in the minority heartland with the likes of Avertano, Benjamin and Caitu having routed out in the 2017 Assembly election despite the fact that the Parrikar government and later the Parsekar dispensation had initiated a number of infrastructural projects in the constituencies of Navelim, Velim and Benaulim respectively.
Post-2017 Assembly election, Parrikar has returned to power with the support of the Goa Forward party mentor and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai. What remains to be seen is whether the Chief Minister will leave Salcete for the Goa Forward party, which too has shown its willingness to expand party base in Salcete, or whether Parrikar will bank on his old political friends in Navelim, Velim and Benaulim to take the government message to Salcete’s countryside.
Local political observers say that much would depend on how Parrikar has assessed the emerging political situation in Salcete with the BJP drawing a blank in the just concluded Assembly elections and his alliance partners, all stranded midway against a resurgence
Congress party.
“One has to understand Parrikar’s mind whether he intends to continue his mission in Salcete and to what extent against the backdrop of the BJP’s debacle in the minority heartland in the 2017 Assembly election,” local observers say.
