MARGAO
Seven-time Margao MLA Digambar Kamat’s return to the BJP fold after 17 years seemed to have left the opposition, more so the Congress, without a leader worth its name to take on the ruling BJP.
While the Congress leadership is struggling to zero in on a leader to head the Margao block committee, plans by the Goa Forward leadership to set up shop in Margao has not materialised yet.
With the BJP returning back to power at the Margao Municipal Council after Kamat’s return to the party-fold, many say the opposition may suffer a further setback as and when the Margao MLA receives his reward for defection by way of a Ministerial berth.
Kamat had been presiding over Margao constituency since 1994 when he made it to the Legislative Assembly on the Lotus symbol. There’s been no looking back for the Margao MLA since then, having retained the seat with ease in the subsequent elections in 1999 and 2002 on the BJP banner.
His decision to quit the BJP in 2005 to embrace the Congress dealt a big blow to the BJP, not just in Margao, but paved the way for the fall of the BJP-led Manohar Parrikar government.
He passed the Congress test in the city in the 2005 by-polls though with a narrow margin in a keenly contested battle. Since then, Kamat has only improved his margin of victory on the Congress banner, winning comfortably the 2007 election before he took over the reign of the State as the Chief Minister.
The Assembly elections in 2012, 2017 and the recent one in 2022 only saw the Margao MLA improving his margin of victory.
