the goan I network
MARGAO
A decade-and-half after former chief minister Manohar Parrikar embarked on the much-hyped ‘Mission Salcete’ -- an exercise aimed to bringing the Salcete minorities closure to the BJP -- the mission is no longer on the party’s election agenda.
The ruling party leadership has no special mission in place for Salcete nor is the party willing to treat Salcete differently from the rest of South Goa ahead of the Lok Sabha poll. On the contrary, departing from Manohar Parrikar’s agenda of getting the minorities closer to the BJP via his Mission Salcete, the present leadership is categorical in saying that Salcete will not hold any special importance in their scheme of things and will be treated equally with other talukas such as Quepem, Mormugao, Ponda, Sanguem, Dharbandora and Canacona.
Sources in the ruling party, however, said that the party will not neglect Salcete in its scheme of things as the party has sizeable presence in some of Assembly segments in the taluka. Margao, Fatorda, Navelim and Cuncolim are the four Assembly segments in Salcete where the BJP has a significant presence, enough to reduce the margin of the Congress candidate, And, constituencies such as Curtorim and Velim have turned out no more walk overs for the Congress as BJP’s voter
percentage in these segments over the years.
Says BJP state president Vinay Tendulkar: “The BJP is working in entire South Goa. We do not see Salcete differently. For us, Salcete will get equal attention along with other talukas in the South Goa
constituency”.
Tendulkar’s stand assumes significance and comes against the repeated failure of the Mission Salcete to get the minorities vote for the ruling party. It was former chief minister late Manohar Parrikar, who had embarked on a mission in Salcete around a decade and half ago on the eve of the 2004 Lok Sabha election to woo the minorities on the BJP’s side. The Mission had come a cropper in that Lok Sabha election with the Congress candidate Churchill Alemao winning the South Goa Seat by a 50,000-plus vote margin.
Parrikar, however, did not abandon his mission. The subsequent years saw him changing his strategy in the Christian-dominated taluka to checkmate the Congress clout over Salcete.
Taking into account the ground reality, Parrikar apparently shifted gears in Salcete. Instead of fielding candidates on the BJP ticket, the astute former Chief Minister backed Independents in some of the Assembly constituencies of Salcete, by strategically shifting the BJP votes, enough to reduce the tally of the Congress party in Salcete to just two in the 2012 election.
