Team Herald
PANJIM: Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate has given Congress a tough task and little time to find a candidate to challenge Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in the Panjim by-polls.
Monserrate, who was billed as the party candidate from Panjim, shocked Congress on Tuesday when he joined Goa Forward, leaving Congress struggling to find a candidate.
“We wanted Babush to contest from Panjim but he has chosen a different party, but we are sure to field our candidate in Panjim,” Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Shantaram Naik said.
The party, however, is not decided on who the candidate will be. Naik, who is in Delhi, said he will reach Goa on Saturday and that the party has three to four probable candidates. He said they will assess the aspirants and a final decision will be taken by high
command after the GPCC sends the report.
The last Congress MLA from Panjim was late Joao Baptista Gonsalves who was elected in 1989, but defected months later. Since 1994, Panjim has been represented by Parrikar, with Congress attempting to dislodge him by fielding various candidates, but being unsuccessful as voters rejected their candidates.
BJP first contested the Panjim Assembly constituency in 1984 and then in 1989, but in both elections could not secure more than 300 votes. However, when Parrikar contested for the first time in 1994 he defeated Congress candidate Keshav Prabhu by a margin of 1066 votes.
Parrikar then kept winning in 1999, 2002, 2007 and 2012, with Congress losing poll after poll in the constituency. The toughest election for Parrikar was in 2007 when he faced Congress’ Dinar Tarcar, and won by a margin of 2444 votes in a straight fight.
Congress in past two decades has not seen a strong and steady candidate in Panjim. In 1989 Congress’s Joao Baptista Gonsalves was MLA but in the subsequent elections of 1994 and 1999 Congress chose Keshav Prabhu as their candidate. In 2002 the Congress candidate was Ramesh Silimkhan, in 2007 Dinar Tarcar, in 2012 it was Yatin Parekh, and in the 2015 by-polls it was Surendra Furtado, against BJP’s Siddharth Kunkolienkar. In the 2017 general elections, Congress didn’t field a candidate, but supported Monserrate against Kunkolienkar.
