For a person who held as many as four portfolios in the previous BJP government before being discarded by the party and eventually losing elections as a rebel independent candidate, Ramesh Tawadkar may have been defeated, but he is not out of action.
KATHY FERNANDES rCANACONA r rA relaxed Tawadkar said he was undeterred and had no regrets at his loss in the recent assembly elections. “I’m a satisfied man as I reached the pinnacle of my political career as minister with four challenging portfolios of sports, tribal welfare, agriculture and animal husbandry. As such, I don’t hold any regrets for losing the assembly elections. I also take satisfaction in knowing that neither my challenger nor those critics who plotted to deny me the BJP ticket in Canacona constituency could gain anything from the recent assembly elections,” said Tawadkar, while interacting with The Goan. rTawadkar admitted that the turn of political events had opened new avenues of private enterprise for him. “After my loss, I got an opportunity to pursue my passion for agriculture and farming commercially by using hi-tech farming I introduced in the agriculture sector as minister.” r“Though politically out of public office, I am not jobless. I have many activities in the social sphere and am now commercially active in farming, after I formed a company M/s Radiant Agro Pvt. Ltd, to provide logistics/technical/marketing support to hi-tech farmers.” r“I am already in the process of developing similar agro-based concepts, for which I have already begun awareness drives by meeting people in South Goa. I want to introduce a concept within six months, which will emphasise on employment avenues.” r“Besides, I am already in the education field and I run two pre-primary, primary and high schools each and one higher secondary school, purely to reach out to rural areas and develop the education standard in my region,” said Tawadkar. r“I also have plans to introduce jackfruit/cashew processing units, naturopathy, yoga tourism, agro-tourism and eco-tourism ventures, as they would help eradicate unemployment to a large extent.” rAsked if people continue to visit him for favours and requests following his defeat in the polls, Tawadkar replied: “I have a constant following of 3000-4000 people from the 7700-odd electorate who voted for me and I simply cannot leave a single one of them out under any circumstances.” rTawadkar insisted that his loss in the assembly polls had only pushed him to focus on the 2022 polls. “I prefer to lie low, but I am certainly active in politics and will make a strong comeback in the 2022 assembly polls, not only in Canacona but 3-4 others constituencies as well,” he said. rSanjay Komarpant, former vice-president of Canacona BJP block and a close aide of Tawadkar, claimed that Tawadkar could never be overlooked by the BJP. r“He has proved this in the assembly polls and post elections, his following has only increased,” said Komarpant. rOn the other hand, Canacona Congress Block President Elvis Fernandes said Tawadkar would not make much impact in the constituency. r“We wish him luck in his future plans, but we don’t consider him a hindrance in our functioning with Congress MLA Isidore Fernandes,” he said.
