Goenkarponn desk
DABOLIM: Despite the incumbent MLA and the Minister Mauvin Godinho being a strong contender to win the seat again, winning the election in the Dabolim constituency for this election will prove challenging to many.
Hectic political development has been witnessed in the constituency in the past few days, which has confused the voters. One such development is that of Captain Viriato entering the Congress party.
Recently, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had a public meeting in the Dabolim constituency with the taxi operators and gave numerous guarantees.
On Friday, INC inducted Captain Viriato Fernandes in Priyanka Gandhi Vadhra, general secretary of All India Congress Committee.
Gandhi said joining Captain Viriato is a matter of pride and expressed confidence that Captain Fernandes joining the Congress party will boost the party in the Dabolim constituency.
Although the present BJP Minister for Panchayats and Transport, Mauvin Godinho, is undertaking several works and has kept personal contact with the peoples by organizing several events and has encouraged people’s participation in it, the new entry in the politics by Captain Viriato from Congress party will definitely be going to make some sort of impact in Dabolim constituency.
This Dabolim constituency comprises the Dabolim area, part of New Vaddem, Bogmalo-Chicolna and Chicalim panchayat.
Many migrant pockets of the Dabolim constituency, mostly slums, are considered the vote banks of the sitting MLA.
Despite the migrant vote share, winning with a huge margin will be difficult for all candidates.
It is well known that all seems to be not too well with the BJP party and the party has remained engulfed with several controversies coupled with the anti-people’s decisions, inflation and many more issues.
The infighting among the BJP MLAs will indirectly affect people’s choices this time.
Nobody will deny that people have made it loud and clear that they need a strong and good option that will work and decide in the interest of the common people and not the capitalist masters like the present BJP government.
People of Dabolim constituency will have :-
BJP’s Mauvin Godinho,
Congress’s Captain Viriato Fernandes,
Nationalist Congress Party’s Jose Philip Dsouza
Aam Admi Party’s Premanand (Babu) Nanoskar, who lost last time against the BJP candidate Mauvin Godinho with a narrow margin.
As per the mood of the Dabolim constituency, the majority of the people are unsatisfied with the anti-people’s decisions, policies of the govt, mismanagement during the CoVID19 pandemic, inflation, controversies surrounding the BJP party and failure to address the people’s issue holistically.
Interestingly, the Aam Admi Party leaders, including national convenor Arvind Kejriwal have received grand support in the constituency.
The majority of the people are convinced with the guarantees the AAP has given to the people, the meetings with the taxi operators, taking common people of Goa into confidence and dialogue with the people will surely benefit Premanand Nanoskar in Dabolim constituency. Mauvin Godinho, on the other hand, has got his BJP followers who will continue to support him, especially the migrants.
The problem with the BJP is that they have lined up several projects that have remained incomplete; the majority of them are in the pipeline or most likely to take a few more years to see the daylight due to limited funds.
Congress has also tried its luck by fielding clean, educated candidates with Capt Viriato Fernandes defence background.
He has been at the forefront of several agitations in Goa. Several people support his vision. But the moment people learnt that Captain Viriato is likely to join INC shortly, the majority of the people took a step back and started rethinking why an activist should join INC, which people dethroned a few years back.
People also started talking about why an activist should enter politics and why he can’t continue his noble work by remaining an activist. But, it is equally true that there is a considerable vote bank of the Congress party in Dabolim which will side with Captain Viritao.
Nationalist Congress Party, president Jose Philip Dsouza is confident of bringing back his good old days when he was a minister and in power.
He has made tall claims that the people from Dabolim are with him, and he is in personal touch with his voters from the Dabolim constituency.
He has been urging and eagerly waiting for a decision over an alliance with other political like-minded parties except for BJP.
But until now, things do not seem to be moving in his favour, and it will surely be a hard time for Dsouza to emerge victorious in Dabolim.
It is unclear who will contest from Trinamool Congress Party from the Dabolim constituency, and there is not much presence of TMC seen in the constituency.
