MARGAO
Realignment of political forces is finally taking shape in minority Salcete ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls as old and bitter foes now join hands to stitch new alliances, while established players are looking for new options in the battle for the same space in the minority heartland.
If Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi has finally blessed the Congress-Goa Forward party alliance, NCP lone MLA Churchill Alemao has now announced plans to join a new political party within a fortnight.
The changing political equations have now brought Opposition leader Digambar Kamat and Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai on the same page to take forward the Congress battle in the minority heartland, which has as many as eight Assembly seats at stake. None other than the Digambar-Vijai duo knows for sure that the alliance has to win most of the seats, if not make a sweep in Salcete, to stay in reckoning to form the new government in 2022.
On the other hand, questions remain unanswered whether Churchill would finally sever ties with the NCP to embrace Mamata Didi’s Trinamool Congress and join hands with Congress-turned-TMC Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro in the battle for Salcete.
Take note, Luizinho Faleiro has neither forgotten nor forgiven how he was stopped from forming the Congress government despite a clear mandate in favour of the Congress after successfully leading the party in 2017. Churchill too recalls how the Congress had stonewalled Faleiro’s attempts to form the government in 2017 when he had brought three MLAs to support the Congress to form the government. That Churchill has refreshed public memory by pointing out that the Congress has now tied up with the very leaders, who had propped up the BJP government is a clear indication that the battle lines between the Digambar-Vijai combine and Luizinho Faleiro and Churchill is slowly taking shape.
Even as the Aam Aadmi Party and other players, including Revolutionary Goans are going about in the coming polls in their own way, bracing up to test the political waters in minority Salcete, the Congress-Goa Forward combine and the TMC, besides Churchill is being keenly watched by Saxttikars.
For, it is evident now that the TMC and other groups, including Churchill is not only out to question the Congress-Goa Forward alliance, but it is clear that opponents of the alliance may question the absence of minority face of the alliance in the scheme of things.
Says a political observer: “When the Goa Forward and Congress leaders were engaged in talks to stitch an alliance, Fatorda had witnessed an exit of local Congress leaders. Now, since the alliance has become a reality, blessed by none other than the party leader Rahul Gandhi, we will have to wait and see the reaction within the Congress and outside to the alliance.”
He added: “With the Congress-Goa Forward stitching an alliance, we will have to wait and see how individual politicians will go about their election plans. These politicians may be either part of the emerging combinations or chart out an independent course. We may see further alignment of political forces in the coming days.”
