File photo of Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha celebrating his victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with an unassailable lead of 50,000 from minority Salcete.
MARGAO
“Salcete went in favour of the Congress”, quipped then Power Minister and BJP Leader Nilesh Cabral, attributing the shock defeat of ex-MP Narendra Sawaikar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for the South Goa seat.
Cabral’s comment summed up BJP’s defeat in 2019 after minority Salcete gave the Congress an unassailable lead of 50,000 vote margin, which proved enough to offset the party’s gains in its stronghold in the hinterland talukas.
BJP’s electoral defeat must have come as a setback for Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who had just taken over the reigns as Chief Minister, post-demise of BJP stalwart late Manohar Parrikar.
Much water, however, has flown down the river Sal in the last five years and political observers may be left to wonder -- what’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant game plan for Salcete in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls?
Well, for an answer, consider this: In 2019, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant kept insisting the BJP no longer pursues Mission Salcete “ an exercise initiated by his predecessor, late Parrikar to woo and win the minorities in favour the party.
Unlike the 2014 Lok Sabha, when the BJP had made a determined bid to make inroads into minority Salcete, there was surprisingly no movement on the ground by the ruling dispensation in 2019 to woo the minorities, with observers saying may be the party had banked on the Aam Aadmi Party to do the damage for the Congress, but in vain.
For, the end result saw Salcete strongly rallying behind the Congress, with all the eight Assembly segments giving ex-MP Francisco Sardinha a 50,000 vote margin, a factor that left BJP sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar stranded midway and dashed hopes of retaining the South Goa seat.
Five years down the line, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is back in the minority stronghold, not with any Mission Salcete, but apparently with a game plan, with the hope to make a dent in the crucial minority vote bank and reduce the vote margin of the Congress in the political scheme of things.
Unlike 2019, when the BJP must have hoped that the Aam Aadmi Party would make deep inroads in Salcete to restrict the vote margin, it is now increasing evident that the BJP is bracing up to go all out to pocket as many votes as it can on its own in the minority stronghold this time round.
Of the eight Salcete’s Assembly segments, the BJP is expected to eye a big lead over the Congress in Margao with former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat back in the party-fold after 17 years. And, not to mention neighbouring Fatorda, where the BJP had trailed behind the Congress in the 2014 polls, though with a thin margin.
Similarly, with the Lotus blooming in Navelim in the 2022 Assembly polls, BJP poll managers will certainly hope to poll big in Navelim in the coming Lok Sabha poll. In the Cuncolim segment, the BJP is galvanizing its traditional voter base. That the Chief Minister got ex-Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias accompany him during his visit to Cuncolim indicates the party is leaving nothing to chance.
In the Curtorim Assembly segment too, where the Congress scored a 7,000-plus vote margin over the BJP, the ruling party will certainly expect to make a dent with the support and help of Independent Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, a coalition partner of the BJP-led government, presently presiding over the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).
