Team Herald
PANJIM: Sitting MLAs, four former chief ministers, family raj and host of new faces is what the first Congress list of 27 candidates offers the Goan electorate for the February 4 Assembly elections.
Despite releasing the first list, talks for an alliance with Goa Forward, United Goans and NCP continue.
Eleven out of 27 candidates will be contesting the Assembly polls on a Congress ticket for the first time or in many cases making a debut in Assembly elections. At the same time, the list has seven candidates, who lost the 2012 polls.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Madhusudan Mistry released the list on Thursday morning in New Delhi, minutes after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared its candidates for 29 seats in Goa.
All six MLAs – Digambar Kamat (Margao), Jennifer Monserrate (Taleigao), Chandrakant Kavalekar (Quepem), Pratapsingh Rane (Poriem), Vishwajit Rane (Valpoi) and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco (Curtorim) have been re-nominated. Kamat was the first to file his nomination papers for the elections.
Leader of the Opposition Rane, also a former State Chief Minister and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, is the longest serving MLA in Goa, having represented Poriem constituency for more than three decades.
The list includes two other former chief ministers – party president Luizinho Faleiro and Ravi Naik. Faleiro will contest from Navelim, which is currently represented by BJP supported Independent MLA Avertano Furtado who will be aiming to retain the seat. Faleiro last won from Navelim in 2002.
Naik, is again in fray from Ponda. Naik lost in 2012 and also lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from North Goa. He was embroiled in the police-politician-drug mafia controversy, after a drug peddler Atala exposed the lethal nexus.
The list includes former ministers Subhash Shirodkar (Shiroda), Nilkant Halarnkar (Tivim) and Felipe Neri Rodrigues (Velim), who lost in 2012.
Former BJP MLA Dayanand Sopte who has joined the Congress will be taking on BJP candidate and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar in Mandrem where MGP will also be fielding a candidate.
Another former BJP leader from Bicholim, Manohar Shirdokar, figures in the Congress list. Shirodkar had fought the 2012 elections on a BJP ticket from Bicholim and lost.
Family raj, that played a role in the Congress loss of 2012, is back. While giving tickets to its Father-Son MLA duo of Pratapsingh and Vishwajit Rane, the party has introduced a husband-wife duo of MLA Chandrakant Kavalekar in Quepem and his wife Savitri being fielded from Sanguem.
If the alliance talks with United Goans are positive, then yet another family of the Monserrates will be fighting the election in alliance. Congress has fielded Jennifer in Taleigao and her husband Atanasio (Babush) is set to contest from Panjim on the UG ticket with Congress backing.
For the first time, the party in its first list has given tickets to three women leaders including Jennifer and Savitri. The third female candidate is Urmila Naik from Marcaim.
Others who have got party tickets are Francis Silveira (St Andre), Sankalp Amonkar (Mormugao) and Isidore Fernandes (Canacona) who had lost in 2012. Silveria, a close aid of Monserrate, was opposed by the St Andre block committee.
The new faces include Vikesh Hasotikar (Pernem), Dharmesh Saglani (Sankhalim), Fransisco Jose Nunes (Dabolim), Gilbert Rodrigues (Cortalim), Wilfred D’Sa (Nuvem), Clafasio Dias (Cuncolim), Rosario Fernandes (Curchorem) and Shankar Kirlapalkar (Sanvordem).
