MARGAO
The sensitive mining issue, CRZ, coal transportation, river nationalization et al may all come in handy for the Congress to counter BJP’s poll agenda centered on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s performance and Manohar Parrikar’s achievements in the ensuing election for the South Goa Lok Sabha poll.
The Congress, however, seems to be bracing up to attack the BJP where it may hit the ruling party the most and may form the opposition party’s main poll plank in South Goa “ BJP’s decision to form the coalition government in 2017 without the people’s mandate.
Exactly two years after the BJP formed the government post-2017 Assembly election when people of South Goa voted decisively against the ruling party, reducing the party’s tally of seats in the legislative Assembly to 13, the Congress appears all out to engage the ruling party on this single issue with a two-fold objective -- one to expose the BJP as a power-hungry party and secondly to galvanize the very same voters, who had rallied behind the Congress in the 2017 Assembly polls to come out on April 23 and teach the ruling party a lesson.
That GPCC chief Girish Chodankar thundered at the Matanhy Saldanha complex on Tuesday when party candidate Francisco Sardinha filed his nomination papers that South Goa voters should teach the BJP a lesson for robbing the people’s mandate indicates that the Congress isn’t going to let the ruling party go scot-free on this emotive issue.
And, party insiders say that the game plan may serve the purpose of bringing out the very same voters to come out and vote against BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar this time round for robbing their mandate two years ago in 2017. “I am quite confident that people of South Goa will come out in large numbers on April 23 and teach the BJP a befitting lesson. The BJP had robbed the mandate of the people in 2017 by forming the government without the numbers. They will face the wrath of the people in the coming election for their actions,” the GPCC chief told The Goan.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP had managed to win just five out of the 20 Assembly seats in South Goa, which makes up the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency, with the Congress leading the pack with 10 seats, followed by MGP with two seats and one seat each going to the NCP, Goa Forward Party and an Independent.
While the BJP had retained their hold over Mormugao taluka with a clean sweep, winning all the four seats at stake the party had drawn a blank in Salcete, Ponda, Sanguem and Canacona taluka, and had managed to win the Curchorem seat in the hinterland.
Congress poll managers in private say that party candidate Francisco Sardinha may not find the going tough despite the fact that the party has no dedicated cadre if the party succeeds in galvanizing the very same voters with a plea to come out and teach the BJP a lesson for disrespecting their mandate. A senior Congress leader said what may go in favour of the Congress in the arduous task of mobilizing the electorate is that public sentiments against the BJP have more or less remained the same since 2017.
