MARGAO
They are the most vocal amongst the lot, espousing the cause of opposition unity to take on Prime Minister, Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre.
Be it Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Aam Admi Party National Convenor Arvind Kejrival or Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee, they lose no opportunity to train their guns at Modi in a bid to dislodge the BJP government in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In Goa, however, these political parties apparently are all gearing up to cross swords with each other in the ensuing Assembly polls. A case in point is Benaulim, the minority heartland in Salcete, where the BJP’s writ does not run at all in this constituency. These parties, however, have started positioning themselves to fight and outwit each other in Benaulim.
Sunday saw Sonia Gandhi-headed Indian National Congress and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress entering the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) turf in Benaulim.
Take note, these two parties have set their foot in the constituency at a time, when the Arvind Kejrival-headed Aam Admi Party (AAP) has already made significant inroads in the coastal constituency, emerging as a challenger to the NCP in 2022.
Leaders of the Congress and TMC descended on the coastal belt, apparently with an eye on the 2022 Assembly election. The two parties seemed to have entered Benaulim with a clear agenda, to recover the lost ground in the constituency, and to position themselves for the ensuing polls.
If the Congress has not won a single election in Benaulim for the last two decades since 2002, TMC’s debut in the coastal belt in the 2012 around a decade ago had gone haywire following the defeat of the party candidate.
Congress election observer, P Chidambaram with Goa desk in-Charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao led the Congress team on the Benaulim turf on Sunday, to motivate the demoralized workers, while TMC’s senior leader, MP Derek O’Brien personally descended in the constituency to welcome noted tiatr producer and director, Tony Dias (Coke) in the party.
In their anxiety to build their respective parties and establish foothold in Salcete coastal belt, the Congress and Trinamool will have to contend with the NCP, which has been representing the constituency in the Goa Legislative Assembly led by party MLA Churchill Alemao.
While the Congress so far has not given clear indications of forging tie-up with the NCP in Benaulim and other constituencies, the TMC has also ruled out alliances with like-minded parties for the moment.
The NCP, on the other hand, is patiently waiting for its offer of alliance made to the Congress leadership, even threatening to field candidates in most of the seats if the alliance fails to materialize.
Political observers say as political developments began to unfold in the run up to the polls, it is evident that at least the Congress, AAP and TMC, if not the NCP, will vie for honours in many a seat dominated by the minorities around Salcete countryside where the BJP has little or no presence.
