Turf wars begin as battle for South Goa brings Digambar and Vijai face-to-face

Margao's Congress-turned-BJP MLA, Digambar Kamat is leading BJP South Goa Lok Sabha candidate Pallavi Dempo’s campaign in Fatorda.

Photo Credits: The Goan

MARGAO
As BJP's Pallavi Dempo and Congress nominee Captain Viriato Fernandes go about wooing the electorate in the two urban Assembly segments of Salcete, Margao and Fatorda, in the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency, political friends-turned-foes, congress-turned-BJP Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and his Fatorda counterpart, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai seemed bracing up for a battle royale in the lanes and bylanes of Margao and Fatorda in the run-up to the May 7 election.

The Margao MLA has vowed to give at least 10,000-vote lead to the BJP candidate in his fiefdom. Returning to the BJP fold after 17 years, Kamat seemed to have also assumed the responsibility of the party in neighbouring Fatorda, considered the fiefdom of the arch-political rival, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai, in an apparent bid to give a lead to the candidate.

In the bargain, Kamat has come face to face with Sardesai, with the Fatorda MLA cautioning that his Margao counterpart should brace up for a befitting reply in the run-up to the May 7 poll.

Given his status as the South Goa election campaign in-charge of party candidate Pallavi Dempo, Kamat made his entry into Fatorda umpteen number of times, in a bid to garner majority votes for the party candidate. His latest visit to Fatorda, coinciding with BJP’s Panna Pramuk Sammelan a day ago brought him face-to-face with Sardesai over a tweet that the event unites passionate souls and fuels Fatorda’s growth.

Not one who will take things lying down, Sardesai, who returned home from London on Sunday, questioned the tweet, holding Kamat responsible for making Margao city a mega scrap yard.

“Kamat need not speak on Fatorda, which is witnessing planned development. We don’t want the Moti Dongor model to be replicated in Fatorda,” he said.

He added: “The Margao MLA had in the past proposed controversial projects such as the truck terminus in Fatorda, after procuring farmers’ fields for a pittance, which the people fought and got scrapped. Kamat now plans to implement a controversial Master Plan without even consulting me as a representative of Fatorda. These people have no right to speak on passionate souls when they have fooled the God by going back on their promises."

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, both Margao and Fatorda Assembly segments had given a lead to the Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha. With Kamat returning to the BJP fold, the Congress-turned-Margao MLA has set a target of 10,000 votes for the BJP candidate from Margao.

That Kamat has repeatedly made forays in neighbouring Fatorda, despite knowing that his presence would leave the Goa Forward chief antagonised, sources say, gives a clear indication of his intention to see the Lotus bloom in Fatorda in the May 7 election and set the stage for a surgical strike in the 2027 Assembly against the Goa Forward chief.

Sardesai, however, seemed bracing up to take on both Kamat and the BJP. While the Goa Forward chief has told his close aides that the party would work hard to give the INDIA bloc candidate Fernandes a big lead from Fatorda, sources do not rule out the possibility of Sardesai crossing the borders and entering Margao in a bid to checkmate the Margao MLA.

In the recent past, more so after Kamat dislodged the Goa Forward-backed Margao Municipal Council around a year and a half ago, Sardesai had announced plans to set up a party base in Margao. The ensuing May 7 Lok Sabha poll may indeed turn out a battle between the friends-turned-foes in a game of one-upmanship to control the twin Assembly segments of Margao and Fatorda.