the goan I network
MAPUSA
With Tivim MLA Nilkant Halarnkar crossing over to the saffron party, Congress has lost its only foothold in Bardez.
Halarnkar had brought Congress into reckoning in the taluka after he managed to win the Tivim seat in 2017 after the party had drawn a blank in the previous assembly polls.
Congress was completely wiped off from Bardez after six of the total seven seats were bagged by the BJP in 2012 polls.
In a way, 2012 was a historic election for the saffron party after it pocketed Mapusa, Aldona, Tivim, Siolim, Saligao and Calangute constituencies completely outsmarting the Congress. Porvorim was bagged by Independent Rohan Khaunte, who was a first time MLA then.
Significantly, in 2007 assembly polls Congress was ruling the roost in three constituencies in Bardez “ Tivim (Nilkant Halarnkar), Aldona (Dayanand Narvekar) and Calangute (Agnelo Fernandes).
After Wednesday’s coup, Congress has once again gone back to having no representation in Bardez.
By roping Halarnkar, has BJP managed to make Bardez Congress-mukt once again?
GPCC member and Congress spokesman Amarnath Panjikar refused to believe Congress is wiped off from the taluka.
“I don’t think its right to say that. Having MLAs or not is immaterial. People are with us. They have been voting for Congress,” Panjikar said.
“In the recent parliamentary election, we polled more votes than in 2014 in Bardez. This clearly indicates that people are still backing the Congress. If we put a little more effort we can surely excel,” he added.
He, however, agreed that the Congress MLAs embracing the saffron brigade smacks nothing short of treachery.
“This is not the way to ditch the party who gave you the ticket and more importantly, the people who elected you. They have killed the trust of people by indulging in this act,” he said.
Incidentally, Halarnkar’s move to join BJP has received mixed reactions among his diehard workers from the constituency. “What he has done is not right. He has ditched sincere workers. I worked for him in 2017 assembly elections. In fact for the last 20 years, I am with him,” said Robert Colaco, a social worker and Halarnkar’s supporter from Tivim.
Colaco also said the Tivim MLA never informed him about his move to join BJP.
Conversely, Tivim panch Shivdas Kambli opined that if the move would help bring development in Tivim, he would support Halarnkar.
“Since we were in the opposition no work was happening in the village,” said Kambli, who is known to be very close to the Tivim MLA. Attempts to contact Halarnkar were unsuccessful as he was unreachable on his cell phone.
