the goan I network
MARGAO
Call it a tactical move or simply an attempt to strengthen the Party’s base across the state, regional player Goa Forward is finally bracing up to make inroad into Congress stronghold Salcete, beginning with Cuncolim constituency.
Against the backdrop of sustained attacks from the Congress party led by state Congress president, Girish Chodankar, who has firmly ruled out any political truck with the regional party, the Goa Forward leadership has planned entry into Salcete’s countryside, which had gone the Congress way in the 2017 Assembly election, with a resurgent Congress winning six out of the eight seats at stake.
This is perhaps the first time since the Congress high Command settled for Girish Chodankar to head the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) following the resignation of then state president, Shantaram Naik, that the Goa Forward appears making a determined bid to enter Salcete in a big way.
While Cuncolim constituency has been on the scanner of the Goa Forward leadership for some time, more so after the Joaquim-Yuri duo had disclosed plans to embrace the regional outfit, the constituencies of Curtorim, Nuvem and Navelim seemed to be on the regional party’s agenda.
Many a political observer may interpret the Goa Forward’s Mission Salcete as an answer to the Congress party’s sustained attack on the regional party and party Supremo Vijai Sardesai, post appointment of Girish Chodankar as the new GPCC Chief. For, the Goa Forward had hardly encountered any attack from the Congress party in Goa, be it from the MLAs or the organization, after the regional party joined hands with the BJP to form the coalition government under the leadership of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
Goa Forward party vice-President, Durgadas Kamat, however, has begged to differ. “We are not making our presence felt in Salcete as a counter move to the Congress’ sustained attack against the party. The Goa Forward is an independent regional party and we have decided to strengthen our base across the state, including Salcete”, Durgadas said.
He pointed out that the decision taken by the Joaquim-Yuri duo to embrace the regional party has evoked huge response from the people of Cuncolim. “Right now, the party leadership is concentrating on Cuncolim. Next on our agenda will be Nuvem, Curtorim and Navelim”,
Durgadas said, as he shuttles between Margao and Cuncolim every day, attending ward wise meetings across Cuncolim constituency, ahead of the planned entry of the father-son duo of Joaquim and Yuri on August 26.
That Durgadas and other Goa Forward leaders have vowed to take up development works through party leaders may bring the regional party and the Congress face to face and on a confrontation course. Cuncolim has already witnessed a battle between incumbent Congress MLA Clafacio Dias and the Alemaos over a host of issues, including the de-notification of the SH8 Chandor highway or the Cuncolim bypass alignment, with neither side willing to concede any space to each other in the political scheme of things.
In the 2017 Assembly election, the Goa Forward had contested in only two of the eight constituencies of Salcete despite the fact that the Congress had cold-shouldered talks of any alliance with the regional players. While Goa Forward party supremo Vijai Sardesai had retained the Fatorda seat, the party had failed to make a mark in Velim. Party’s overt and covert support to an independent candidate in Navelim too had no takers in the election.
