Amid seat-sharing talks in the INDIA front, the party has announced its candidate for the constituency that has a sitting Congress MP
Dhaval Kulkarni/ India Today
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has thrown a spoke in the wheels of the INDIA front and potentially queered the pitch for the Congress in its traditional stronghold by announcing a nominee for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat. Captain Venzy Viegas, the party’s MLA from Benaulim, will contest from the parliamentary seat, which is represented by Francisco Sardinha of the Congress.
Goa has two Lok Sabha seats. North Goa, which has three-fourths Hindu presence, is represented by Union minister Shripad Naik of the BJP. South Goa, which has substantial numbers of Roman Catholics and Muslims, is a Congress bastion. The Catholics constitute about 36 per cent of the electorate in Salcete (the region around Margao), which bolsters chances for the Congress in South Goa. Muslims are around 10 per cent in the south and 7 per cent in the north.
The Congress has represented South Goa since 1977, barring 1996, 1999 and 2014. Sardinha, who is a former chief minister of Goa, has won from South Goa for three terms. In 2014, Narendra Sawaikar of the BJP had defeated Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco of the Congress on this seat.
Veigas emerged as a giant killer of sorts by defeating former chief minister and former MP Churchill Alemao of the Trinamool Congress from Benaulim assembly seat. The AAP has two legislators in Goa, the other being Cruz Silva from Velim.
“I really do not know why AAP has taken the premature step of declaring their candidate for a seat that already has a Congress MP,” said Amit Patkar, president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC). He added that the local Congress unit wanted to claim both Lok Sabha seats in Goa for the INDIA front. “Today, the need of the hour is to throw the BJP government out. This is why we have all come together,” said Patkar.
Amit Palekar, president of AAP in Goa, claimed Viegas would be the nominee of INDIA, and that AAP would contest as part of the rainbow coalition. “In Goa, there are very few candidates with a clean image. We wanted to give a clean face. We expect this decision to be accepted by INDIA,” he said. Palekar described Viegas as a “widely acceptable face” and added that his work in Benaulim had led to demands from the people that he be nominated for the Lok Sabha election.
AAP leader Valmiki Naik said they were going by the “ground reality”. “This is not about who is the sitting MP. It is about who can defeat the BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha election,” he claimed. Naik said Viegas was the best candidate to defeat the BJP.
However, a senior Congress leader claimed that parties that were part of INDIA were being “arm-twisted” to break ranks with the Congress. He questioned why AAP had not announced its nominee for North Goa, which has a BJP MP.
Apart from Sardinha, the Congress also has contenders like former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes, Capt Viriato Fernandes, and former GPCC president Girish Chodankar.
The BJP is said to be considering the names of Sawaikar, former chief minister Digambar Kamat, former deputy chief minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar and former MLA Damodar (Damu) Naik.
The Revolutionary Goans Party has already announced the candidature of Rubert Pereira from South Goa, while Alemao, who has a reputation for being a serial party hopper, may contest as an Independent. Alemao, who is moving closer to the BJP, may eat into Catholic votes, which may have otherwise gone to the Congress.
The Congress is also on a weak wicket due to eight of its 11 MLAs led by Kamat and then leader of Opposition Michael Lobo defecting to the BJP. Kamat has a base in Margao and his defection along with legislators like Sankalp Amonkar (Mormugao) and Alexio Sequeria (Nuvem) will strengthen the BJP in Salcete.
Goa Forward Party president and former deputy chief minister Vijai Sardesai, who represents Fatorda in the legislative assembly, is also yet to reveal his cards.
Sandesh Prabhudesai, political analyst and author of Ajeeb Goa’s Gajab Politics, said AAP’s decision to field its candidate would affect the Congress directly if the former manages to buck previous voting patterns. These trends suggested that the Catholics voted for AAP in the state legislature polls while standing by the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, AAP’s Swati Kerkar managed to get just 3 per cent votes, while in 2019, Elvis Gomes secured 5 per cent. “The Congress will take a hit if this voting trend changes,” explained Prabhudesai.
