SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The central election committee (CEC) of the Congress on Tuesday cleared 11 more names of the candidates for the Goa Assembly elections.
With this, the Congress has so far declared names of 26 candidates. The Congress is fighting the elections in alliance with the regional Goa Forward Party (GFP), which has been allotted two seats.
Former Minister Michael Lobo, who resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined Congress last week will contest from his traditional Calangute constituency while, former independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar will contest from Sanguem constituency.
Former Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar, who also quit Goa Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) and joined Congress, has been fielded for Marcaim seat, where he will battle it out against his friend-turned-foe Sudin Dhavalikar, who has been representing the Marcaim constituency since 1999.
Former Sankhali chairperson and sitting councillor Dharmesh Saglani will contest from Sankhali constituency. This is the second time the party has fielded Saglani from Sankhali, which is currently represented by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant of BJP.
The Congress has fielded five new faces. They are as follows: Bicholim- Meghashyam Raut; Tivim- Aman Lotlikar, Porvorim- Vikas Prabhudessai, St Andre- Anthony (Tony) L Fernandes and Canacona Janardan Bhandari.
Anthony (Tony) L Fernandes, a footballer had contested the last Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections and lost by a narrow margin.
In another list released late evening, the Congress declared the candidature of former Minister Aleixo Sequeira from Nuvem constituency and Velim sarpanch Savio D’Silva from Velim constituency.
The Congress has denied ticket to former Velim independent MLA Benjamin Silva, who had joined the party six months back.
When contacted, Silva told Herald that he will decide his future plan of action after consulting his workers and supporters on Wednesday.
“I have convened a meeting of my workers and supporters from Velim constituency on Wednesday morning and after consulting them I will decide my next step,” Silva said.
