With just two Lok Sabha seats from Goa, the stakes aren’t as high as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala or any other state in South India when we talk of parliamentary elections.
Despite this, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah made sure their presence was felt in Goa as they aspire for thirst consecutive term at the Centre.
Modi addressed a huge rally in Sancoale in South Goa while Amit Shah addressed a meeting in Mapuysa at North Goa.
On the other hand, the Gandhis, who are the helm of the Congress party, have decided to skip Goa – NOT SO IMPORTANT?
Interestingly, Congress is fighting the Lok Sabha elections under the banner of INDI Alliance and that has given some breather to the party candidates.
While veteran politician Ramakant Kahalap is contesting against BJP’s Shripad Naik in the North it is former defence personnel Viriato Fernandes who takes on BJP’s businesswoman Pallavi Dempo.
Interesting tussle on cards…
Not depending on the party bigwigs, the INDI Alliance has put in great efforts, in South Goa especially, to see that Viriato sails through.
Goa Forward President Vijai Sardesai, Vice President Durgadas Kamat, AAP MLAs – Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva have worked hard to see that the Viriato gets a huge margin in their constituencies.
Sardesai has travelled as far as Canacona and Mandrem to canvas for the INDI candidates.
So if the Congress party wins one or even both seats the credit has to be given to the alliance partners and not the INC Goa or INC India.
The efforts of AICC and GPCC are just not enough to win elections.
Congress failed to take local issues…
While the BJP has taken up issues of Ram Mandir and honest leadership of Narendra Modi and the overall development of Goa, the Congress has just not been able to focus on one local issue.
There are several issues be it Mining, Mhadei, land conversions, migrants, casinos, defections, or dual citizenships the Congress has failed to make any of these as poll issues.
The GPCC president Amit Patkar has failed to impress. Maybe we are proved wrong on June 4 but till now his body language is not very encouraging.
The media, the alliance partners and the party workers are all upset that the president just does not respond.
Who will the youth vote for…??
For senior citizens, while it has always been Hand (Congress) since their youth days, the youth of India today seems to be more on the BJP side.
It will be difficult for the BJP to convince the new voters as they have no clue how the BJP came to power in 2014 under what backdrop.
They have no clue about the coal scam, the 2G scam or the Commonwealth Games scam, as they were just 10 or 12 at that time.
Key constituencies and candidates
But, once again at the superficial level, Goa seems to be going back to having its politics dominated by the two big national parties.
Voting for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will take place on May 7 across 93 constituencies. In this phase, both the Lok Sabha seats of Goa – North Goa and South Goa – will go to polls.
The other states and Union territories which will vote in the second phase include Assam (4 constituencies), Bihar (5 constituencies), Chhattisgarh (7 constituencies), Goa (2 constituencies), Gujarat (26 constituencies), Karnataka (14 constituencies), Maharashtra (11 constituencies), Uttar Pradesh (10 constituencies), West Bengal (4 constituencies) and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (2 constituencies).
The North Goa seat has been a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold since 1999 (then Panaji Lok Sabha constituency).
The constituency has switched between the Congress and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party from 1962 to 1998. However, no party has been able to snatch power from the saffron party since 1999.
The North Goa constituency is currently represented by Shripad Yesso Naik, who defeated Congress leader Girish Chodankar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of over 80,000 votes. Naik, who has won every election from the seat since 1999, is eyeing his sixth consecutive win. The Congress has fielded former deputy CM of Goa Ramakant Khalap from North Goa.
The South Goa Lok Sabha constituency is currently represented by former chief minister of Goa Francisco Sardinha of the Indian National Congress (INC). He had defeated BJP leader Narendra Keshav Sawaikar by a margin of over 90,000 votes in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A four-time MP, Sardinha had emerged victorius from the seat in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2019. Despite his past performances and record wins, the sitting Congress MP from South Goa has been dropped for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party has fielded Captain Viriato Fernandes from the seat against Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo of the BJP. Dempo is the wealthiest candidate among those in the fray in the third phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. In her 119-page affidavit, she declared assets worth Rs 1,361 crore. The Congress has had an upper hand in this constituency, winning 10 elections since 1977.
