Is there a possibility that the upcoming 2027 Assembly elections, scheduled for February, could be advanced to January? The Election Commission of India (ECI) has already set the process in motion to conduct the elections as per schedule. Yet, a section of the Opposition believes that the ruling BJP has already sounded the poll bugle, with hectic activities underway at both the government and party levels.
Sources say the party’s well-oiled organisational machinery is already at work, with cadres from Goa and outside reportedly going door-to-door in certain constituencies. Is the Opposition prepared to face the elections if they are held in January instead? Only time will tell.
RGP factions lock horns; ECI to decide party’s identity
This makes for interesting reading. Long before Goa Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel announced that the Election Commission of India would decide on the dispute over the authorised group and leadership of the Revolutionary Party of Goa (RGP), speculation about the ECI’s intervention had already been doing the rounds in political circles for over a month. The reasons behind such speculation are not difficult to fathom, more so when the ECI had intervened in similar situations in other states. The latest developments have now thrown up an interesting question for debate: which faction of the RGP will the ECI recognise as the real party, and will the decision on the
party symbol go in favour of either faction? Wait and watch.
Congress-GFP alliance: Deal done or still distant?
Have the Congress and the Goa Forward Party stitched up an alliance to jointly contest the upcoming Assembly elections? Well, this was precisely the question Goa Forward chief Vijaibab Sardesai reportedly put to his Congress counterpart, Girishbab Chodankar, when he called to find out whether the Congress had finalised its alliance with the regional party. The local media have already begun reporting that the two parties are close to sealing the deal, with six seats reportedly earmarked for Goa Forward. This has apparently left Vijaibab upset, as the Congress is yet to respond to his party’s proposals. Has an alliance been finalised, or is it still a work in progress? Wait and watch.
Sarkar Tumchya Dari: Last-minute planning puts officials in a fix
The government’s ‘Sarkar Tumchya Dari’ programme has come in handy for the ruling dispensation to reach out to people across various constituencies ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. For government officials, however, the programme has turned into a nightmare. The problem is not merely Chief Minister Pramod Sawant repeatedly pulling up the administration for being less than citizen-friendly, but the manner in which the programme itself is organised. Officials say that events are not planned according to a fixed schedule, with dates often being finalised only on the eve of the programme. This leaves officials scrambling to abandon their routine work and rush to attend the events. Any questions?
Gomes launches poll campaign in Cuncolim under new banner
Bureaucrat-turned-politician Elvisbab Gomes appears to have kicked off his election campaign in his home constituency of Cuncolim. Large cut-outs and banners featuring the former bureaucrat have sprung up across the constituency. If sources are to be believed, Elvisbab has also begun touring the constituency and interacting with voters ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. Although he continues to be a member of the Congress, the former bureaucrat has chosen to launch his campaign under the banner of ‘Swabhimani Cuncolkar’. Is this a sign of things to come? Wait and watch!
