The Congress has finally announced Ramakant Khalap as its candidate for the North Goa parliamentary seat to fight BJP’s Shripad Naik, and Capt Viriato Fernandes for the South Goa parliamentary seat to fight BJP’s Pallavi Dempo in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Goa. Well, Ramakant Khalap has vast experience in politics and, in all likelihood, might pose some challenge for BJP’s Shripad Naik for the North Goa parliamentary seat. Besides being an elected MLA/leader of opposition in the past, holding a number of portfolios as minister, and being a former deputy CM in the Dr Proto Barbosa-led PDF government, he was also a Union minister in late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet.
Capt Viriato Fernandes, the Congress’s candidate for South Goa, on the other hand, is an ex-Indian Navy officer. His profile on X handle states that he’s a retired officer of the Indian Navy, a Kargil War soldier, mechanical engineer, aeronautics engineering specialisation, and double MBA, due to which BJP candidate Pallavi Dempo for the South Goa parliamentary seat will surely find it very difficult to defeat him easily in Goa. Well, leaving aside the North Goa parliamentary seat (which the BJP might somehow still win), the BJP may try to win the South Goa seat by splitting the votes.
