MARGAO
After a grueling no-holds-barred campaign for the Margao civic polls, a host of questions have come to haunt the key political players in the city on the eve of Friday’s polling.
One, can Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai regain back the confidence of Fatordekars post-2017 Assembly election when he had joined hands with the BJP to prop up the BJP-led Manohar Parrikar government.
Two, will former two-time BJP MLA Damu Naik’s gamble of forging a combination of the traditional voters and the minorities, including the significant ST community pay off.
And, will Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat ward off a spirited challenge from the BJP city leaders to storm his bastion ahead of the 2022 Assembly election.
Indeed, the Goa Forward chief has not left a single stone unturned in the run up to the hectic poll campaign to gain back the confidence of Fatordekars, especially the minorities ahead of 2022. He went about the campaign as if he was fighting an Assembly election, leaving nothing for chance. He did not miss a single opportunity to slam the BJP, link the party to the controversial project, including coal and track-doubling to woo the minorities and win back their confidence.
That he also ensured that the majority Hindus are not alienated and went about the social engineering in such a way that most of the communities got representation in the scheme of things indicates that the entire campaign was not just an attempt to retain power in the civic body, but gauge the public pulse ahead of 2022 election.
Arch rival Damu Naik did not lag behind either during the campaign. The former two-time MLA faces an acid test to retain the BJP traditional vote-base and wait for the outcome of his overtures he made to the minorities, especially the ST community. A couple of BJP-backed Vibrant Margao candidates, observers say, may emerge triumphant in the election only if Damu and Team BJP manage to hold on to the traditional voter-base and shift the votes to these candidates, especially the ST candidates.
While Vibrant Margao’s candidates are contesting in all the 11 wards falling under Fatorda, BJP insiders say winning even a couple of seats will help Damu and the BJP bounce back in Fatorda ahead of 2022.
In Margao, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat is once again facing a challenge of sorts from the arch rival, BJP. Since he quit the BJP and embraced the Congress in 2005, Kamat had not conceded much space to the rival party.
He, however, knows for sure that after the success in the Zilla Panchayat polls and phase I of the Municipal election, the BJP has been out with an agenda to suffocate him in his bastion. That explains why the Opposition leader moved door-to-door in support of his candidates, apparently not to concede any space to the ruling party.
For the city-BJP leaders, the same old question has come to haunt them “ can they stop the Digambar juggernaut in Friday’s election and set the stage for the 2022 election to storm the Opposition leader’s bastion.
