PANAJI
The rough and tumble of the gruelling month-long campaign in challenging heatwave conditions for the May 7 and the even more excruciating wait for another three weeks to know their fate when counting is taken up on June 4 may have taken a toll on the candidates in the fray for the two Lok Sabha seats in the State.
Yet, none of them have embarked on any leisure activity or gone on any outstation holiday tour either elsewhere in the country or abroad even as there are reports that several State-level politicians, including some ministers have treated themselves to such breaks.
Quite to the contrary, some of the candidates have continued their routine activities and others are busy touring their constituency meeting workers and voters to personally thank them for their support during the campaign.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) South Goa candidate, Pallavi Dempo, got back straight to her business related work, soon after polling day on May 7.
“I am back to work....after a morning workout I then head to work at all verticals to complete the pending work,” Pallavi, wife of the chairman of the Dempo group Shrinivas Dempo, told The Goan.
The Dempo couple, however, did make a short outstation trip, according to sources, but it was a business trip to attend meetings of a few companies they are on the management Board of.
“Not gone on a vacation yet, but I plan to travel (short vacation) with my family, either in India or abroad. It will be before the month-end, before the counting date (June 4),” Dempo said.
Her rival, Captain Viriato Fernandes of the Congress, meanwhile, has no plans of taking any break and is busy touring the whole of South Goa meeting with workers and supporters who helped in his campaign.
“He is busy touring the entire South Goa, constituency by constituency, to thank everyone. The campaign was driven by the people so he feels it is his duty to go meet and thank them,” said Vivek Kanthak, who managed much of the logistics of Fernandes’ campaign.
Both the North and South Goa candidates of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) --its President Manoj Parab and Rubert Pereira – too are on the ground going about their routines.
“They are on the ground, continuing to take up people’s problems and issues,” an RGP leader told The Goan.
As for the two politicians who battled each other in the North – Shripad Naik of the BJP and Ramakant Khalap of Congress – the May 7 election was another in their tally of several they have fought over the years.
With each having political careers spanning several decades, the gruelling demands of an election campaign is no big deal for the Naik-Khalap duo, even if both are septuagenarians. As per information available from their respective camps, neither of them have treated themselves to the luxury of a vacation.
