PANAJI
Two of South Goa's parliamentary seat's seven talukas -- Mormugao and Salcete -- account for over 58 per cent of the constituency's electorate thus making them crucial in the eventual outcome at the ensuing Lok Sabha elections slated for May 7.
Interestingly, neither of the two major contending political parties -- the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Opposition Congress which currently holds the seat -- are as yet decided on who their candidates will be.
The third political party of note in the fray -- Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) -- has named Rupert Pereira who was their candidate from Curtorim in the 2022 Assembly elections.
The BJP has indicated that their South Goa candidate will in all likelihood be revealed on Monday (March 18) and the Congress is said to have adopted the strategy that it will announce its nominee only after its rival does.
Both, Mormugao and Salcete account for 12 of the 20 assembly segments that make up the South Goa seat and aggregately have 3.48 lakh voters according to the rolls published by the Election Commission of India.
Salcete on its own has eight assembly segments -- Nuvem, Curtorim, Fatorda, Margao, Benaulim, Navelim, Velim and Cuncolim -- and an electorate that is 2.37 lakh strong.
Once considered a Congress bastion, the taluka in recent years has opened up to other political parties and in the 2022 assembly elections, elected three MLAs of the Congress, two of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), one of the BJP, one of the Goa Forward Party and one Independent.
However, following defections months after the polls, the BJP now has three MLAs in Salcete and Congress is left with just one -- Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao from Curtorim. Legislative strength, however, may not be of much consequence for the Lok Sabha elections as often in the past voters have tended to adopt voting patterns in the national election which are vastly different from how they voted in the State elections.
As for Mormugao, which has four assembly segments -- Mormugao, Vasco, Dabolim and Cortalim -- and a voter strength of 1.11 lakh, it can safely be said to be a BJP stronghold as the saffron party won all four seats in two consecutive elections in 2012 and 2017. In the last Assembly elections, it conceded Mormugao to the Congress but got the winner Sankalp Amonkar to defect to it, making its tally 3. The fourth seat of Cortalim is held by Independent MLA, Anton Vas.
The five other talukas of South Goa -- Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem and Dharbandora -- account for eight assembly segments of the South Goa Lok Sabha seat and together have a voter strength of a little under 2.5 lakh where the BJP is dominant.
Three of Ponda's four assembly segments -- Ponda, Shiroda and Marcaim -- account for nearly 90,000 voters. The fourth assembly segment of Priol from Ponda taluka forms part of the North Goa Lok Sabha seat.
Quepem taluka which has a voter strength of roughly 61,000 has two assembly segments -- Quepem and Curchorem -- and Sanguem taluka also has two assembly seats.
The other three talukas of Sanguem, Dharbandora and Canancona have one assembly segment each.
The dominance of Salcete owing to its sheer numbers is perhaps the reason why the Congress has won the seat most times in the past with minority community leaders hailing from the taluka as candidates.
For the Congress, Eduardo Faleiro won five times, sitting MP Francisco Sardinha won it thrice and Churchill Alemao once. The second time Alemao had won the seat was when he was sponsored by the regional United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP).
The seat has been won by the BJP only twice -- in 1999 with Ramakant Angle as candidate and in 2014 with Narendra Sawaikar.
