Uncertainty grips North and South Goa constituencies as the Congress continues to delay the announcement of candidates for Lok Sabha elections.
What’s missing often makes more news than what’s out in the public domain. So when the BJP released its list of candidates for South Goa, the absence of Congress candidate’s names raised eyebrows.
Yet another Sunday has gone by but the Congress refuses to budge from its stand of “Wait till the end” for announcing the candidates for the candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress earlier took a stand to let the BJP name candidates first but even after the saffron brigade named both their candidates for North and South Goa, the grand old party seems to be confused on who their candidates would be.
In fact, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s statement “Congress will struggle to field candidates” seems to be coming true.
What the delay has done is the alliance partners are worried over the party’s delay in naming candidates.
The INDI alliance has decided to fight the elections together in Goa and as such Congress would field candidates for both seats in Goa.
The AAP, Goa Forward and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) leaders met yesterday to discuss the delay and convey this to the Congress.
The alliance partners are also upset at the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president’s non-responsive attitude.
Goemkarponn has already reported how the attitude of the president has upset the core party workers and this has now been expressed by the coalition partners.
Apart from the coalition partners, the party’s core workers also met yesterday at Capt Viriato Fernandes’ home in Vasco.
They demanded a ticket for Capt Viriato as they felt he was the only clean and honest leader who could work for the people of South Goa.
This proves how the delay by the Congress “bigwigs” has made the workers “jittery”.
This once again puts North and South Goa in the spotlight. What’s the reason for the delay in announcing candidates? Sources in the know say it’s a political strategy to prolong the announcement but clarity can be expected soon.
The CEC has had a discussion on the two seats, one of which has been Congress’ bastion for a long. The more the delay, the more the perception builds that these seats are not the Congress’ priority and the Gandhis do not hold Goa as a priority at all.
While the Congress does not think it can win North Goa, having lost 5-0 in the last five elections to the BJP, the party has the upper hand in the South.
While Vijay Bhike and former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap are vying for the ticket in North Goa, AICC leader Girish Chodankar, Capt Viriato Fernandes and sitting MP Francisco Sardinha are in the fray for the South Goa ticket.
Party sources have attributed the delay to the infightings within the party over the naming of candidates.
Cash crunch…
Another major issue is the cash crunch for the party as with the party’s accounts being frozen by the Income Taz department, the party does not seem to be in a position to field candidates in all constituencies.
Hence, the CEC is looking at candidates who can bear their own expenses for the elections.