MARGAO
Ending months of speculations, young city-based businessman Chirag Naik, son of noted businessman and political thinker, Datta, is all set to join the Congress party on Thursday.
Chirag’s induction into the Congress party assumes significance and comes months ahead of the 2027 Assembly election, where the Congress is expected to take on the might of party-turned-BJP seven-time Margao MLA and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat.
Top Congress leaders comprising of Congress Goa desk in-charge, Manikrao Thakre, AICC secretary Dr Anjali Nimbalkar, besides GPCC Chief Amit Patkar, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao are expected to welcome Chirag into the Congress fold on Thursday noon.
Though a political novice, Congress sources pointed out that many citizens from Margao and outside are expected to come and express their solidarity with Chirag over his decision to embrace the Congress party.
The Congress party has hit by a vacuum of sorts after Digambar Kamat defected to the BJP on September 14, 2022 lock, stock and barrel. What has boosted the morale of the party rank and file, however, was the result of the 2024 Lok Sabha pols.
While the BJP and Digambar Kamat had set a target of 10,000 voter lead in Margao in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party had ended in taking a slender lead, taking political observers and the BJP camp by total surprise.
In fact, the migrant-inhabited Moti Dongor area, which has been Digambar Kamat’s stronghold over the year crumbled in the Lok Sabha polls, with the Congress securing lead in two of the three polling booths located atop the hillock.
Though the Congress-turned-BJP MLA managed to give a slender lead to party candidate Pallavi Dempo, the development came as a big morale booster for the Congress workers and sympathizers, literally setting the stage for the 2027 Assembly election.
While local Congress leaders and workers led by former Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho had been working on the ground in a bid to take on the Margao MLA, Congress leadership had given the green signal for Chirag’s entry to further strengthen the party in the run up to the Assembly election.
