PANAJI
The Congress party has shortlisted a bunch of names for nine constituencies in North Goa at a meeting of party leaders convened by the party leadership and as expected several ticket aspirants have made it to the shortlist especially in crucial constituencies like Mapusa and Panjim, sources close to the Congress party have revealed.AICC State Observer Prakash Rathod, North Goa District Observer Mansoor Ali Khan, South Goa District Observer Sunil Hannumanavar and Senior Vice President M K Shaikh conducted both the meetings in the north and south Goa that were held over the course of the morning.
In Panaji constituency, the names of Menino D’Cruz and former mayors Uday Madkaikar and Surendra Furtado have been shortlisted. In Mapusa, the names of former BJP member and aide of former deputy chief minister Francis D’Souza Sudhir Kandolkar along with North Goa Congress president Vijay Bhike and Gurudas Natekar have been submitted, sources have revealed.
It is learnt that among the constituencies where no names have been finalised yet includes Calangute constituency where the local block fears that Michael Lobo will make his entry into the Congress, the Aldona constituency, the two constituencies of Pernem taluka, the Poriem constituency that is currently held by the Congress and represented by Pratapsingh Rane among others.
Others shortlisted includes Meghashyam Raut for Bicholim, Tulio de Sousa and Bolanath Ghadi for Saligao, Tony Rodrigues for Taleigao, Ramkrishna Jalmi and Dr Dinesh Jalmi for Priol, Manisha Ajgaonkar, Vishwesh Porob, Roshan Dessai and Ranjeet Rane for Valpoi while there were as many as six names shortlisted for the Siolim constituency including Chandan Mandrekar, Leo Dias, Roshan Chodankar, Francis Fernandes, Dattaram Pednekar and Rajan Ghat.
Earlier senior observer for Goa P Chidambaram told Congress workers that only names they suggested and forwarded by the block leadership would be considered by the party leadership and no one from ‘outside’ would be imposed on the constituency at the last minute.
He however, asked Congress workers to back whichever candidate the party finally selects from among the shortlist and not squabble over names once the party finalises its candidates.
It is learnt that another round of meetings will be held to finalise the names for the remaining constituencies that weren’t able to be completed on Monday.
