MAPUSA
Basic necessities like water, power and roads are the main election issues in the Siolim assembly seat, where the Bhandari caste equation of the majority community form the voting majority.
In a multi-cornered contest with 13 candidates, highest in the State, in the fray, Siolim is experiencing a seesaw battle with BJP’s old warhorse, Dayanand Mandrekar and Congress’ new face, Delilah Lobo.
Former MLA Vinod Paliencar as Independent, AAP’s Vishnu Naik and TMC’s Leo Dias have further spiced up the election potboiler in the coastal constituency.
Besides, the outsider versus insider and save your land debate also rages in the constituency as Parra Sarpanch Delilah Lobo, who is not a resident of the constituency, is making a determined bid to win the seat.
Delilah, wife of former minister, Michael Lobo, is facing some historical electoral facts.
In the last 13 assembly elections since 1963, all the candidates who have got elected in the constituency were from proper Siolim village leave alone a rank outsider who is not a resident of the constituency.
Secondly, a woman candidate was never elected and more importantly a Congress candidate has never won from the Siolim constituency.
But the Congress candidate remains unfazed despite the odds and is determined to create history.
“I am here to create history. Can you imagine, in spite of India’s 75 years of Independence and Goa’s 60 years of liberation, people in Siolim have to still plead for water, power and good roads? People are looking for change,” Delilah said.
Dayanand Mandrekar of the BJP has won the seat four times in a row from 1999 to 2012 setting a record in the constituency which was previously dominated by the MGP. However, in 2017, he lost to Goa Forward’s Vinod Paliencar by a margin of 1,441 votes.
“The work that I have done in my previous tenures will help me to sail through. Our people are swabhimani (having self-respect) and are aware of the real intention of the opposition,” Mandrekar said.
AAP’s Vishnu Naik who was in the third position in the previous election is once again trying his luck and is expecting to capitalize on the sizable silent vote.
“Siolkars have been deprived of basic necessities like water, power and good roads. Secondly, people are fed up with candidates who are elected on one party but cross over to another for selfish gains,” Naik said.
Many voters had picked development as the main issue in the constituency. Irregular water and power supply and the state of roads hurt them the most.
A resident of Siolim-Marna, Elvira Fernandes said, “For three years the condition of the main Siolim-Marna to Mapusa road was in pitiable condition. We went through horrifying times. Besides, there is a general lack of development in the constituency.”
The other candidates in the fray are Charisma Fernandes (Shiv Sena), Gauresh Mandrekar (RGP), Diana Fernandes (Sambhaji Brigade Party), Jaganath Gaonkar (Jai Maha Bharath Party), Anil Kerkar (Ind), Pallavi Dabholkar (Ind), Dattaram Pednekar (Ind) and Patrick Savio Almeida (Ind).
