Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress appears to have sealed the name of their Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar as the North Goa Lok Sabha candidate, however, an official announcement is yet to be made.
Party sources informed Herald that Chodankar’s name has been cleared as the candidate but a decision on the South Goa candidate is yet to be taken. The meeting of Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress on Monday remained inconclusive.
Responding to the development, Goa desk in charge A Chella Kumar said “The CEC will be meeting soon and the names will be finalised. In a couple of days you will know the names of the candidates for both constituencies.”
While BJP’s incumbent MPs, AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar are expected to contest, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced Elvis Gomes and Pradeep Padgaonkar as candidates in South and North.
The delay by the Congress has taken its workers by surprise. A party functionary said it would have been prudent for the party to announce the candidate early so that the people have enough time to familiarise themselves with the candidate and the candidate has enough time to cover the constituency during the campaign.
While, Chodankar’s name has been finalised, former MP Francisco Sardinha is the front runner for the South Goa. Sardinha is being considered over Adv Cleofato Almeida Coutinho, whose name was also considered.
Sources said that since Almeida Coutinho has not been a member of the party, Sardinha was the preferred candidate. Nevertheless, there is speculation that the GPCC leadership is trying to surprise all by proposing a new face as their candidate in the South.
Congress has been fighting a crisis of leadership and loyalty during the last few years, including defection by MLAs after the 2017 Goa Legislative polls. Two of the MLAs – Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar – resigned and joined the BJP in October last year during the time Chodankar has been the GPCC chief.
Sources said that being reduced to five MLAs in North Goa during Chodankar’s presidentship, raises questions about his acceptability as a viable candidate for the party amongst the leaders.
“Additionally we are facing bypolls in three Assembly constituencies and candidates for these bypolls too are yet to be announced. All three constituencies are in the North and such a delay will only damage the chances of the party winning”, a source stated.
Congress is also yet to decide on the candidates for the by-polls in Mandrem, Shiroda and Mapusa.
