MARGAO
The electorate in minority-dominated Salcete, where as many as eight out of the 40 Assembly seats are at stake, is finally bracing up to decide the fate of career politicians and their challengers as the state goes to the polls on Monday.
Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar and a host of former ministers, including ex-CM Digambar Kamat, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Churchill Alemao, Aleixo Sequeira, Mickky Pacheco, Vijai Sardesai, Avertano Furtado, besides present and former MLAs are in the fray, including Clafacio Dias, Reginaldo Lourenco, Wilfred D’Sa.
Considered a stronghold of the Congress over the years, the party is facing a challenge from political parties such as the Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi, besides the BJP and a couple of independents to protect its fort from crumbling.
The Trinamool Congress had made a debut in Salcete in the 2012 polls, but had come a cropper. The Aam Aadmi Party had entered the electoral fray in the 2017 elections, but had drawn a blank. This time, however, the two parties have left no stone unturned in reaching out to the voters in the minority bastion.
The two parties have made a big presence felt in Salcete and are serious contenders in a couple of seats.
On the other hand, the BJP, which had drawn a blank in the 2017 elections, is contesting in all the eight seats at stake in Salcete this time round. The party, however, has made a determined bid to regain the Fatorda, Margao and Cuncolim as evident by the party’s campaign in these seats.
The Revolutionary Goans Party has made its electoral debut in the ensuing polls and has fielded candidates in all eight constituencies.
A couple of Independents, including ex-MLAs Wilfred D’Sa for the Nuvem seat and three-time former MLA Reginaldo Lourenco in Curtorim are back in the reckoning in their respective constituencies.
The Congress is facing a challenge of sorts to retain its stranglehold over Salcete as the party has made a determined bid to return to power in 2022. In the last election held in 2017, the party came close to forming the government after it won six out of the eight seats at stake in Salcete, with the remaining two seats going to the non-BJP parties, Goa Forward and the Nationalist Congress Party.
The party leadership knows for sure it cannot hope to regain power without doing well in Salcete in Monday’s election, but is facing a challenge of sorts from the BJP as well as from like-minded parties to maintain its stranglehold over the taluka.
