Party set to induct three-time ZP member Cipru Cardozo today
Former Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, who regained the Navelim seat for the Congress in the 2017 Assembly election after the party’s defeat in the 2007 and 2012 Assembly elections.
Cipru Cardozo
MARGAO
As the stage is set for the formal induction of three-time Navelim Zilla Panchayat member Cipru Cardozo in the Congress party on Saturday, the main opposition party is hoping to rejuvenate its presence in a constituency that was once considered a party stronghold.
Navelim has long been synonymous with former Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, who held the fort for the Congress for several years. However, Faleiro’s departure from the party to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections left a leadership vacuum. Now, with Faleiro no longer associated with the Congress, the party is turning to the second-rung leadership in the constituency to rebuild its base in the constituency ahead of the 2027 polls.
Electoral history suggests that the Congress maintained a stronghold in Navelim under Faleiro’s leadership until the 2007 Assembly elections, when the bastion crumbled. That year, former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao, contesting under the Save Goa Front banner, unseated Faleiro, marking a significant shift in the constituency’s political landscape.
Since 2007 to 2022, the Congress had managed to regain the Navelim seat only in 2017 when Luizinho Faleiro staged a political comeback after remaining low for a decade.
The Congress, however, suffered a big electoral setback in the 2022 Assembly elections when the Lotus bloomed in Navelim for the first time ever, creating an electoral history of sorts in the minority dominated constituency due to a vertical division in the non-BJP votes.
The party also suffered another setback when the party put up a poor show in the 2022 bye-polls for the Davorlim Zilla Panchayat seat.
The latest initiated by the local Congress leadership comprising of GPCC chief Amit Patkar and Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao is seen as an attempt to revive the fortunes of the party and to keep the party in good stead in 2027.
Sources, however, pointed out that Congress party’s move to strengthen the party base in Navelim with the induction of Cipru and his workers has come under scanner in the wake of recent move by the Goa Forward party to set up the regional party’s block in the constituency.
In fact, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai minced no words when he thundered that the regional party is setting up the block in Navelim to empower the Scheduled Tribes and the Muslims, which not only form a significant electorate in the constituency, but has been the Congress party’s core vote base over the years.
Cipru’s entry into the party will be welcomed by top party leaders, including Congress Goa desk in-charge, Manikrao Thakre, GPCC chief Amit Patkar, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao and others.
