CUNCOLIM: It’s 9 pm and AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Elvis Gomes contesting from Cuncolim constituency has just returned to his party office in the Cuncolim market.
With curtains down on the campaign schedule, Elvis seeks a feedback on the last day. On the occasion of the Cuncolim Church feast, the locals are busy watching a tiatr. Elvis’ son Aaron Gomes has been receiving standing instructions from his father to be within 3 metres.
“I just toured Ambaulim village of the constituency and the boys tell me how they received money packets. This election, the BJP is throwing cash packets for votes but people realise that money is not everything and they will vote for me,” explains Elvis, who says that he is disgusted with the lower rank officers on election duty who support this activity and have been ineffective in curbing money power during polls.
Elvis recalls that five years ago he was busy with election duty and today, he’s a candidate fighting polls after quitting government service.
“As an individual I was upbeat how Goa voted for a change then and I served the entire administration with lots of zeal. But over a while, I saw the corruption in the Parrikar and Parsekar governments and got restless. I quit my bright career to fight the elections and clean this system. I was disappointed how dirty politics tried to implicate me in a scam but I will continue to fight for my people,” explains Elvis.
He says today was about reminding his supporters to vote for him and his party, which stands for clean politics. There’s no time to visit everyone now to convince them but rather reach out to his die-hard supporters. He hopes he’ll get the desired 8,000 votes in a constituency, which has around 32,000 voters. He feels that over 2,000 voters are working abroad with their homes closed.
“The volunteers went house-to-house I met the people and interacted with them. The Zhaadu Yatra was the highlight of our campaign besides choosing truthful candidates,” explains Elvis, who says he has no money and muscle power but he’s confident of his victory. Elvis says he downplays caste, community and religion surveys and statistics as he’s confident that Cuncolim people will vote for him based on his credentials alone.
He also stated that Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is addressing tiny corner meetings of 30 people, which really shows his desperation to win.
