Cortalim: Gilbert Mariano Rodrigues literally grew up with the children of the Zuari Nagar slums. Though he has homes in Crotalim and Velsao, Rodrigues has been family to the settlers of Zuari Nagar who were never considered outsiders by the Rodrigues family, who is fighting the Cortalim elections on a TMC ticket.
It is said in Cortalim’s political folklore, that if you don’t “slum “ it out and know each gully and side streets of Zuari Nagar, you can kiss goodbye to being a serious politician of Cortalim. Zuari Nagar alone has 13,000 votes while the Sancoale panchayat where Zuari Nagar falls accounts for 50 % plus votes of the constituency. And this happens to be the backyard of Rodrigues who lost by a mere 1200 votes in the last Assembly elections on a Congress ticket
As a boy, I spent my childhood in these slum areas. The open space in front of my house was the meeting ground. On the other side, lived the Zuari Nagar boys. We became men from boys right here. I’m one of them and at the same time, because of my presence in Cortalim and other areas, I am all over the constituency. But Zuari Nagar is in my heart,” said Mariano to Herald
Mariano also recounts how during the pandemic times, he made it a point to live in his Zuari Nagar home in the containment zone, working day and night to help patients get them hospital beds, food, and medicines. That had nothing to do with politics. I did it as a local boy hand in hand with everyone
Mariano has played some big political innings locally after taking on the formidable BJP MGP coalition candidate in the panchayat elections. Mariano’s real big moment came in the ZP elections of 1995 where he won by a thumping majority, surprising everyone. That is when Gilbert Mariano Rodrigues announced that he had arrived on the big political stage of Cortalim.
Luizinho Faleiro then made him join the Congress party formally and got him to contest the 2017 elections which he very narrowly lost.
His presence has caused enough worry in the rival camps. It’s an open secret that Panchayat Minister from neighbouring Dabolim, Mauvin Godinho has fielded Girish Pillai, also a Zuari local to cut into Mariano’s votes in order to benefit Anton Vaz, officially an independent but in reality backed by the BJP though it has an official candidate Narayan Naik.
