the goan I network
MARGAO
United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) senior leader Adv Radharao Gracias has made it clear that the priority before the party is to ensure the defeat of the BJP in the ensuing election even if it means supporting a consensus candidate on the Congress banner, while saying the party doors are open for people such as Mickky Pacheco and others willing to return to the
party fold.
He, however, said the Congress need to field a good candidate who would do justice to his job, unlike the present lot of party MLAs from Salcete, barring MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, who has been found wanting in their job.
Radharao told The Goan there are many people including former Minister Mickky Pacheco, who have shown their willingness to revive the UGDP to protect the interests of Goa and Goans following the lackluster performance of the opposition MLAs in the Legislative Assembly. “If people are ready to join and revive the regional party, we welcome these people for the simple reason that the present lot of MLAs, including the opposition MLAs, have failed to protect the interests of Goemkars. We are ready to take up the interests of Goa and Goans,” Radharao said.
He, however, made it abundantly clear that the topmost priority before the UGDP is to defeat the BJP in the ensuing 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “The popular sentiments prevailing amongst Goans is that the BJP should be defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. As a political party, we need to respect the popular sentiments of the people that the BJP should be defeated in the coming election,” Radharao said.
He, however, sounded a note of caution to the Congress that the party should not take the people of Goa for granted just because the popular sentiments run against the BJP. “We would like a consensus candidate to take on the BJP. We may have no problem to support such as a consensus candidate if he contests on the Congress banner, but the candidate should not be like those Congress MLAs, whose performance have been found wanting in the Goa Legislative Assembly,” he said.
Radharao, however, said while the UGDP may be willing to extend support to the Congress with the sole aim of defeating the BJP, the regional party will be back on the electoral battle in the next Assembly election. “I think regional parties such as the UGDP are required to take up the cause of Goa and Goans. Barring Reginaldo Lourenco, the Congress MLAs, more so from Salcete, have failed to deliver on the floor of the House. Against this backdrop, I feel the UGDP is ready to fill up the vacuum created in the interest of the people,” he said.
The UGDP was a force to reckon with in the 90’s and early 2000 when the party had a representation in the State Assembly since the 1994 election, with then party leader Churchill Alemao even rising to become the MP from South Goa in the 1996 Lok Sabha election. Over the last one decade, the UGDP has been lying defunct, with no representation in the Assembly and the party losing it’s Two Leaves symbol after the 2007 Assembly election.
Incidentally, in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Radharao had lent his support to Congress candidate Reginaldo Lourenco, who had lost the South Goa seat to BJP’s
Narendra Sawaikar.
