the goan I network
MARGAO
For almost a decade and half now, one has not seen a Scheduled Tribe community member representing this constituency in the Legislative Assembly. But, the community’s dominance and influence over the electoral politics in the constituency appears far from over.
Welcome to Fatorda “ where politicos of all hues jostle to woo the influential Scheduled Tribe community in their bid to have a slice of the ST cake.
Almost every political player “ be it Goa Forward mentor Vijai Sardesai, his BJP challenger Damu Naik, besides the Congress, appears leaving nothing to chance when it comes to the ST votebank. If Vijai is on the move to retain his stranglehold over the community, he is facing a challenge from the Congress party, which has fielded ST leader Joseph Silva for the Fatorda seat. Damu Naik has not lagged behind either. Over a month and half now, Damu has been working systematically to rope in a good number of ST workers and voters into the BJP fold, giving a new twist to politics centered on the ST community.
The gathering of ST community members at Vijai’s residence during the weekend, moments after it became clear that Congress has fielded local ST leader, Joseph Silva, is seen as a show of strength by the sitting MLA. It has also sent clear indications to the rival camps that the sitting MLA is in no mood to concede an inch of space to his opponents.
That Vijai enjoys a clout with the ST community is evident by the fact that all the councillors, who were elected on his Goa Forward panel, are solidly behind him. Leading the pack of councillors is Tito Cardozo, son of former minister and three-time former Fatorda MLA Luis Alex Cardozo.
Political observers say that Vijai first consolidated his hold on the votebank after winning the elections with support from the community, before he went about tapping the Majority vote, which was until recently the exclusive monopoly of the rival BJP.
That Damu did not lag behind either to woo and make inroads into the ST community became clear when he went about welcoming the community members into the BJP since late 2016. Giving a new dimension to the ST politics, Damu went about inducting ST members into the BJP, with the hope of increasing the party’s vote share. “We believe in the principle of Sab ka sath, sab ka Vikas. We do not discriminate against any community,” Damu said.
The ST’s comprise a good number of voters in Fatorda, roughly put between 4,000-5,000, a vote bank which no political party or candidate can ignore if they hope to make it to the Legislative Assembly. Spread across the areas of Marlem, Borda, Gogol, Agalli, Murida, Aguada, Chandrawado and Ambaji, the ST community was once a force to reckon with as evident by the fact that ST leader Luis Alex Cardozo was elected thrice from Fatorda, before a split in the vote saw the Lotus bloom in the constituency in 2002. The fast pace of urbanization witnessed in Fatorda over the years has seen a steady growth of high rise buildings and settlements too, bringing with the development new settlers and voters, literally displacing the community from their habitat and also undermining their significance in politics.
