Team Herald
CUNCOLIM: The serious candidates in Cuncolim constituency have been concentrating on door-to-door campaign till date and the public campaign is slated to take off from Monday.
Interestingly, the voters in the constituency are very silent and not willing to reveal whom they would prefer as their next MLA.
Amongst the four serious contenders – Congress, BJP, AAP and Independent Joaquim Alemao – AAP appears to have stolen a march as it has completed two rounds of door-to-door campaign in most of the constituency and is followed by Congress that has completed one round of visiting voters at their doorsteps.
However, Joaquim says that he has covered 85 per cent of the constituency through door to door campaign. The BJP candidate Subhash alias Rajan Naik is still visiting voters at their homes.
In fact, the BJP’s strategy appears to be to concentrate on its strongholds and that is why it has completed the door to door campaign in Cuncolim municipal area, Balli panchayat area and is expected to complete Paroda today.
Incidentally, the BJP took a lead in only these three areas at the 2012 elections. Significantly, the BJP has prepared no plans for any door to door canvassing in Chandor, Guirdolim and Macasana while it proposes to cover Ambaulim shortly. The BJP is yet to schedule its meetings whether corner or public.
AAP candidate Elvis Gomes is yet to visit all the households in Macasana and Ambaulim, however, he is all set to hold corner meetings there in order to meet as many people as possible. While AAP has planned corner meetings from Monday, public meetings are tentatively scheduled for January 26 and 27 at Cuncolim and Chandor, respectively.
The Congress brushes aside any suggestion of a setback following some of its members quitting over the issue of choice of candidate. “If two have left the Congress, four have joined us,” said Shailesh who is leading Clafacio’s campaign in the constituency.
While the Congress is also concentrating on corner meetings, it has fixed two public meetings on January 31 and February 1, at Chandor and Cuncolim, respectively.
Joaquim Alemao is very confident of his victory as he has the elected members of various panchayats particularly Chandor and Guirdolim, plugging for him. And though he claims to have visited the electorate at their doorsteps, his son or his supporters did it on his behalf.
Notwithstanding the claim of the candidates and their supporters, what is significant is that the voters are very silent this time around. This, the AAP claims is advantage for it as it claims the backing of the conscious voter who is largely silent.
