While the Municipalities all around Quepem were achieving a landslide victory for BJP supported panels, Quepem braved the waves and cut across them and got a Congress and Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavalekar supported panel. The MLA’s panel uprooted the BJP by winning 9 out of 11 seats even as BJP’s heavy weights such as Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francisco D’Souza had campaigned for the BJP candidates and even inaugurated development work recently.
Political big wigs have failed to understand the charisma of the Quepem MLA as this time too, he powered up his panel to victory. This, against the backdrop of multiple cases that have been levelled against him and being the centre of investigations regarding his assets or his role as the former GIDC chairman. However, these have been around for sometime and despite the odds, Kavelkar swept the majority for the elections. He did it in the past as well in the 2012 state assembly elections when Congress crumbled due to the anti-incumbency factor, the 2015 Zilla pancahyat elections from Quepem that was fought on party lines and even the 2014 Lok Sabha elections where he helped Quepem retain the Congress lead against the Modi wave that swept the nation. Herald spoke to some of the Councillors and People of Quepem and tried to decode the Babu puzzle.
Kavalekar hit a birdie by pocketing the majority of councillors in his stride this time around hitting 4 consecutive goals to nil of the BJP in the state and centre. Dayesh Naik who has been the past Chairperson has been the strongest and the longest running supporter of Babu Kavalekar. He said, “Babu Kavalekar is a man who helps all across party lines. His personal contact with the people gives him the edge over all the opposing people. Most importantly, he is not into vengeance politics. Tomorrow he may be in the Congress or in the BJP or Independent, but he will continue to be the favourite of the Quepemkaars.”
Filu D’Costa who is another strong man of the Kavlekar gang says, “Babu Kavalekar’s personal contact with the people, the way he greets, speaks and chats with the most simple and the most complex people of his area is his advantage. The campaign he had this time in Quepem changed everything and turned people in favour of his panel. He is an MLA but has the deepest reach in his constituency,” adding, “Not just Quepem, his personal contact with people has even helped him and his candidates secure seats in areas as far as Canacona and Cuncolim too.”
Shwetang Telang who is a Director of a co-operative credit society while speaking with Herald said, “When it’s Babu, people have no hard feelings or anything bad against him. His personal contact and helpful nature has proved to be his biggest advantage throughout his political career. He has his panel for 3 terms which is 15 years but hasn’t let the municipality down due to the changing centers of powers in the state.”
