MARGAO
Is Congress prepared to take on the seven-time Margao MLA in the event a by-poll is thrust on Madgavkars if Digambar Kamat quits the party to embrace BJP?
On paper, it’s an advantage for Congress in Margao, with the party flag flying high in the city since the 2005 by-poll. The poll statistics show that the BJP could not regain the Margao seat for the last 17 years, with Congress not only winning election after election since 2005 but improving its performance with every poll.
The ground reality, however, may look different for the party minus Kamat at the helm. Statistics show the Congress flag started flying high in Margao, beginning with the 2005 by-poll, when Kamat switched sides.
In fact, since 2005, Margao emerged as one of the safe places for Congress, so much so that the party retained the seat in the 2012 polls when its fort crumbled across the State, reducing it to a single digit in the Assembly.
Political observers in private concede that Congress indeed has an uphill task at hand to reorganize the party in the event of a by-poll. For, it’s an open secret that Kamat had led from the front by maintaining his stranglehold over the party, right from the booth to the block level. His door-to-door campaign to drum up support for Congress-backed candidates for the Margao municipal poll under the Model Margao banner is an indication that Kamat took a personal interest not just to keep the BJP at bay, but to get his candidates elected to the civic body with his goodwill.
That’s not all. Like in many Assembly constituencies and in true Congress working style, Margao too has not seen a second-rung leader groomed by the party or was not allowed to be promoted in the constituency since the time Kamat presided over in 2005.
A political observer also cited any challenge staring at Congress minus Kamat “ the crucial migrant vote. Margao constituency plays host to around 5,000-strong migrant voters, spread across Moti Dongor to Azad Nagar, Maria bandh to Khareband and Kharelem etc. The migrant vote has always rallied behind Kamat, since his stint in the BJP in the early 90s.
A case in point worth mentioning is the 2002 Assembly polls. The Congress candidate Girish Chodankar had to face a hostile crowd at migrant-inhabited Moti Dongor when he crossed swords against Kamat in 2002. Just three years later, the entire Moti Dongor voted en-block for Kamat when he contested the 2005 by-poll on the Congress banner.
An attempt made by the BJP to storm into the migrant vote in the 2022 Assembly polls by fielding Manohar Ajgaonkar came to a nought when Kamat retained the migrant vote, defying all poll predictions of a shift in the migrant vote.
A Congress leader was candid in admitting that the party would have to fight the election with its back to the wall. “It’s a fact that the party may have to grapple with issues such as organization and the migrant vote in the event of a by-poll,” the leader admitted.
He, however, hastened to add that the unfolding political developments may trigger a wave against the powers that be.
“Politics and elections are unpredictable. Instances are galore when the mighty have bit the dust as they could not handle the wave against them. We have an example of former deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, who could not handle the negative wave against him. No one can underestimate Congress”, cautioned the Congress leader.
Margao MLA has stranglehold over constituency since 1994
MARGAO:
Statistics show that the BJP has won the Margao constituency thrice, while the Congress managed to open its account in the 2005 by-poll and went on to retain the seat since then when the seven-time MLA Digambar Kamat was a member of these two parties.
Having won the seat for the first time in the 1994 election on the BJP banner, Kamat retained the seat in the 1999 poll. The Margao MLA scored a hattrick of sorts when he won the seat for the third time in 2002.
Three years later, however, Kamat decided to quit the BJP on the ground he was feeling suffocated in the party, a decision which resulted in the downfall of the BJP government headed by then chief minister later Manohar Parrikar.
In the 2005 by-poll, Kamat managed to ward off a strong bid by the BJP to storm his fort when he retained the seat by a slender margin of 1,377 votes. Since then, it has been no turning back for the Margao MLA, who retained the seat in style in 2007, before he rose to become the Chief Minister.
