MAPUSA
The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which was once a domineering force in Bardez and produced some tall leaders, has failed to field a single candidate in any of the seven constituencies in the taluka much to the chagrin of its diehard supporters.
MGP dominated Bardez politics since the first assembly election held in 1963 after the Liberation of Goa.
From 1963 to 1994, MGP ruled the roost in Bardez. The party began to lose its grip from 1999 onwards.
Conversely, the BJP shot up to fame in the taluka at the expense of the MGP.
Former Speaker Surendra Sirsat was the last MGP candidate who was elected from Mapusa in the 1994 assembly election.
In the 2017 assembly election only two candidates “ Vinod (Balu) Phadke (Mapusa) and Mahesh Satelkar (Aldona) “ contested on the MGP symbol from Bardez.
Both, however, lost the election.
Although an MGP candidate has won from every constituency in Bardez, the party had a very strong presence in Mapusa and Tivim.
The downfall of MGP in Bardez started when Francis D’Souza won the Mapusa seat as the candidate of the Goa Rajiv Congress Party in 1999. His nearest rival was Congress while MGP came fourth in that election after BJP.
D’Souza then joined the BJP and since 2002 won the Mapusa seat four times in a row for the BJP triggering the decline of MGP in Mapusa.
Similarly, former BJP minister Dayanand Mandrekar won from Siolim three times in a row from 1999 and wiped out MGP’s presence in the constituency.
In 2012 too, the MGP did not field a single candidate in Bardez due to a pre-poll alliance with the BJP.
This time too MGP’s pre-poll alliance with the TMC is considered as one of the main reasons for MGP failing to get a single seat in Bardez.
But the party’s staunch supporters feel that the party should have contested at least in Mapusa which has a good number of the party fan base.
“Failing to field a candidate in any of the constituencies is an insult to party workers who have kept the party alive in the taluka. The leadership should have fielded a candidate in at least one constituency in Bardez. In the long run it will cost the party dearly,” said Mahesh Rane, former youth president of the MGP.
He slammed the party leadership for concentrating only on Ponda taluka.
He also censured the party for brokering an alliance with a party (TMC) that parachuted in Goa just three months before the election.
According to ex-councillor & former MGP man Tushar Tople, the MGP has good presence in Mapusa and Aldona and the party should have fielded candidates in these two constituencies.
