PANAJI
The Scheduled Tribes community, which accounts roughly around 10-odd per-cent of the State’s population, has become the cynosure of all eyes in the run-up to the May 7 Lok Sabha elections and its leaders are being wooed by both sides.
Earlier this week, leaders of the INDIA bloc reportedly met some of the leaders of the ‘Mission Political Reservation for STs’, the umbrella organisation which mobilised the community over nearly a year to press their demand for a quota of seats in the Goa Assembly.
According to an office-bearer of Mission Political Reservation, some State BJP leaders are also in touch with them.
However, after the Central government only passed a cabinet decision and failed to notify the quota before the Lok Sabha election, the leaders are now mulling to either field their own candidates or back the INDIA bloc.
There is also a remote possibility of the group taking a decision to ask the community to boycott the polls, the office bearer said.
The ST community has a larger population in the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency, while in the North, they have some influence in Tiswadi, Bardez, and Sattari areas.
