MARGAO
Team Congress may be raring to go for the February 4 poll in its stronghold Salcete with a blend of old and new faces. Unlike 2012, the party leadership may sound upbeat over the absence of any anti-Congress wave this time round in its traditional bastion. The battle, however, isn’t over yet. In fact, the battle has just begun as the Congress will have to contend with a whole lot of new and old political parties and players, besides Independents, all vying for a slice of the secular cake in the minority heartland.
Even as curtains have come down on filing of nominations on Wednesday, the Congress leadership has suddenly realized that party candidates will have to grapple with multi-cornered contests in as many as five minority-dominated constituencies “ where the party had suffered a complete wash out in the 2012 Assembly poll. In these five constituencies comprising Velim, Cuncolim, Benaulim, Nuvem, Navelim and Nuvem, the BJP may have sizeable or little presence, barring Cuncolim and Navelim. But the Congress leadership has a task cut out “ to keep its challengers, all vying for the secular space, at bay.
For the moment, the ground reality still looks hazy, but the presence of a host of parties and players in the fray, including new entrant Aam Aadmi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Goa Su-Raj Party, Goa Vikas Party, Goa Forward Party, besides Independents, including a couple of sitting MLAs, has indeed raised the specter of vote division in the bastion.
Take the case of Velim, where the Congress and party candidate Filipe Neri Rodrigues will certainly hope to see the party flag flying high again in the constituency. The Congress, however, has a challenger in the Aam Aadmi Party, Goa Forward Party, Goa Su-Raj Party, besides a couple of Independents, including sitting MLA Benjamin D’Silva. A division of the secular vote into four-five different groups is not ruled out for the moment.
The situation in neighbouring Cuncolim is no different. Congress rebels, Joaquim Alemao (IND) and Adv John Monteiro (GVP) along with AAP Chief Ministerial candidate, Elvis Gomes, will be vying for the secular space in the constituency, which had in the past went the Congress way, barring 2012, when the Lotus had bloomed due to a vertical divide in the secular vote.
High profile Benaulim will again see the Congress slogging it out with the NCP, Aam Aadmi Party, Goa Su-Raj Party and sitting MLA Caitu Silva, who is contesting as an Independent, to hold on to its traditional vote base.
State Congress President Luizinho Faleiro’s Navelim constituency is also bracing up for a multi-cornered contest. Faleiro will face an acid test to his leadership to retain the secular vote and his rivals, including Independent Avertano Furtado, Goa Vikas Party candidate George Barretto, Independent Cipru Cardozo and others at bay.
Says political commentator, Adv Cleofato Coutinho: “Compared to 2012, the Congress looks a formidable side. But the party should have taken care to manage its rivals. Also, it was surprising that the party leadership delayed in declaring its candidates in Nuvem, Velim, Navelim and Cuncolim much in advance to give a headstart to the candidates, which would have given the party a big advantage against the contenders vying for the same space”.
