PANAJI
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) strategic move to include woman aspirants for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat has raised several eyebrows, considering that in the history of State politics neither the saffron party nor its arch rival Congress ever fielded or nominated a woman.
In fact, over the last five decades and after 15 Lok Sabha elections, Goa can boast of just one woman Member of Parliament (MP) -- Sanyogita Rane.
It was the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) who gave Goa its first and sole (till now) MP. Rane, a first-time contestant, was elected as the MP from North Goa in January 1980. She defeated then Congress sitting MP Purshottam Kakodkar by a margin of over 27,500 votes.
She contested the 1984 and 1991 Lok Sabha polls, but was never re-elected. In 1984, Rane contested the parliamentary seat as a candidate of Goa Congress -- a regional party floated by late Dr Wilfred de Souza after he split from the Congress.
Rane tried her luck yet again at the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, but this time as an Independent candidate and faced a defeat.
The State with highest female voters has never elected a woman to either of its Lok Sabha constituencies since then. For the coming Lok Sabha elections, due in April-May, women will account for more than 51 per cent of the total State voters, of which another 51 per cent are dominated in South Goa constituency.
For this election, total 11,66,939 voters are eligible to exercise their right to vote -- this includes 6,01,300 female and 5,65,628 male voters. There are 11 third gender voters registered.
The history shows that, BJP vouched for a single candidate -- Shripad Naik for last five terms and he continues to be their candidate for the 2024 polls. In South -- bastion of Congress -- BJP fielded multiple male leaders but managed to win just once in 2014.
On the other hand, over the years, Congress too explored several male options in North and South.
As per the data, in 1999, Goa Vikas Party had nominated Sweta Akhadkar from North Goa and in 2019 Aishwarya Salgaonkar contested as an Independent candidate from the constituency.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had in 2009 approached Nirmala Sawant for the candidature from North, which she even agreed upon. However, internal politics led to dropping her name at the last minute and the party giving ticket to Late Jitendra Deshprabhu.
In South Goa, Anupama Naik contested as an Independent candidate in 1998 and Auda Viegas was a UGDP candidate in 2004 polls.
The Aam Aadmi Party, who made their entry into Goa politics during that time, tried its luck by fielding Swati Kerkar in the 2014 parliamentary elections-that saw BJP winning both the seats for the very first time.
In the last election, Shiv Sena had nominated Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik from South Goa.
