MARGAO
Can Saxtti’s lone Minister in Chief Minister Pramod Sawant Cabinet, Congress-turned-BJP MLA Alexio Sequeira stop the Congress juggernaut and help the Lotus to bloom in minority-dominated Nuvem Assembly segment in the May 7 Lok Sabha polls?
Nuvem has the history of giving huge and unassailable leads to the Congress over the years, which had in the past contributed its mite to the victory of Congress candidates in many a Lok Sabha election.
The May 7 Lok Sabha election poses an acid test for Environment Minister Alexio Sequeira and his organizational skills as he has embarked on a mission to give a lead for the BJP in the coming election, setting the stage for a no holds barred battle between the BJP and the Congress.
Equally determined to stop the Lotus from blooming in Nuvem are the local Congress leaders and workers, and party well wishers, who seemed to have neither forgotten nor forgiven Sequeira for his September 14, 2022 defection to the BJP along with seven other Congress MLAs.
The Congress has received a further boost in its campaign against the BJP as a host of former MLAs, including Mickky Pacheco, Wilfred D’Sa and Radharao Gracias, all working on the ground to take on the might of the Congress-turned-BJP MLA.
On paper, the BJP seemed to have not much presence in the minority-dominated Assembly segment, comprising of the villages of Nuvem, Loutolim, Verna, Nagoa, Betalbatim and Majorda. Results of the previous Lok Sabha elections suggest that the Congress had a virtual free run in Nuvem. In fact, Nuvem along with Velim and Benaulim segments have been the pillar of strength for the Congress party in successive Lok Sabha elections, leaving the BJP stranded midway by giving unassailable leads for the Congress.
The BJP, however, now seemed totally banking on Salcete lone Minister Aleixo Sequeira to give a couple of extra votes from Nuvem in an apparent bid to reduce the Congress in the minority stronghold.
Known for his organizational skills and political acumen, Sequeira seemed to have descended on the battle field in right earnest. Initiating a couple of development works to arranging special pilgrimage train to Vailankani, the political heavyweight seemed to have not left a single stone unturned in pursuit of his one-point agenda “ to give sizeable votes, if not lead for the BJP over the Congress, in Nuvem.
Sequeira, however, has a task cut out as recent electoral history shows that the BJP’s performance in Nuvem has been poor and lacklustre in the minority dominated segment.
The only time the BJP managed to cross the 5,000-vote mark in Nuvem was in the 2014 Lok Sabha election when former MLA Mickky Pacheco mobilized his workers in support of BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar, culminating in a massive meeting of the BJP in Nuvem.
As it turned out, the BJP had polled unprecedented 5,321 votes in Nuvem in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, in the bargain reducing the Congress lead in the segment. In the following Lok Sabha election in 2019, however, the BJP tally again slumped to 2,525 votes in Nuvem.
Against this backdrop, political observers say that Sequeira must have been given the task to achieve in 2024 what Mickky Pacheco had exactly done a decade ago in the 2014 Lok Sabha election “ ensure the BJP polls as many votes as possible and reduce the Congress tally of votes in the minority dominated Assembly segment.
