Team Herald
PANJIM: Former BJP loyalists Mahadev Naik – minister in the BJP-led government from 2012-17, and Sudhir Kandolkar – five time Mapusa Municipal councilor; are Congress candidates for the by-elections in Shiroda and Mapusa respectively. The candidate for the Mandrem by-poll is yet to be decided.
They have been pitted against BJP’s Subhash Shirodkar in Shiroda and Joshua D’Souza in Mapusa. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had approved the State unit’s proposal to field the two ex-BJP men in the upcoming by-polls.
A statement by the party’s general secretary Mukul Wasnik stated, “The Congress president Rahul Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of the following persons (Kandolkar from Mapusa and Naik from Shiroda) as party candidates to contest bye-elections to the Legislative Assembly of Goa.”
Even before the final announcement, Congress had begun a door-to-door campaign with Naik urging voters to ‘kick out betrayals’.
Interestingly, Shirodkar, who was earlier with Congress had defeated Naik, then with the BJP, in the 2017 Assembly elections. Shirodkar joined BJP in October 2018 whereas Naik joined Congress in February 2019.
For Mapusa, Kandolkar who was eyeing the BJP ticket was left fuming when the party preferred Joshua, son of former Mapusa MLA Francis D’Souza over him. Kandolkar had served the BJP for 20 years and had left the party following a largely attended meeting with his supporters recently. The Mapusa seat fell vacant due to Francis’ death in February this year.
