MARGAO
A saffron flag flying high over Nuvem may not have been unheard of in a constituency, which plays host to an overwhelming concentration of minority Catholic voters in Salcete.
In fact, together with Velim constituency, Nuvem has a history of giving huge and unassailable leads for Congress, which had helped the party to win both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections with ease.
For the second time in the last three years, the Nuvem constituency will be represented by a BJP MLA, courtesy of defection by senior Congress MLA Aleixo Sequeira on Wednesday.
In fact, constituents and Congress supporters received the news of the decision of the Congress-turned-BJP MLA with shock and anger, with the defection coming barely three years after ex-MLA Wilfred D’Sa had embraced the BJP along with nine other Congress MLAs in 2019.
A staunch Sequeira supporter pointed out that they had all worked on the ground in the 2022 polls to punish one traitor, pointing fingers at ex-MLA Wilfred D’Sa, who had quit the Congress to join the BJP in 2019. “It’s not even six months and we have another traitor, who has betrayed the trust and the mandate of the people,” remarked one supporter.
In fact, many an ardent supporter of the Nuvem MLA have been flooded with calls and WhatsApp messages, anxious to find out what has transpired in Panaji on early Wednesday morning.
The supporter added: "Though reports did the rounds in political circles that the Nuvem MLA was one the MLAs ready to jump the ship to join the BJP, there were not many takers for these reports.”
When The Goan tried to reach out to Majorda panch, activist Creson Antao for his reaction to the political developments, he was shocked to hear that the Nuvem MLA has switched sides.
Creson, who is on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Vailankani with family, said he too has been receiving messages with Congress workers and supporters from Nuvem over the defection by Sequeira.
“When reports had first come some time back, that the Nuvem MLA was one of the MLAs likely to join the BJP, I had called on Sequeira to find out the truth. But, he said there is no truth in the story and termed them as mere rumours. As a Congress worker, I had advised Sequeira not to take any decision that would paint the party in bad light more so when we had all worked hard to defeat ex-MLA Wilfred D’Sa for defecting to the BJP,” Creson said.
He added: “While Sequeira had expressed concern that development files have not been moving since he is in the opposition, I had asked him to make a list of the files so that the people can all unitedly fight against the government.”
