TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Political activity in the state is hotting up as the Lok Sabha polls draw near, but presently the serious politicking is confined to intra party politics, with leaders from both the BJP and Congress camps jockeying either for the ticket or pushing the stakes of their favourites for the nominations.
The Congress till date has still not managed to appoint a president for its local unit even though central emissaries have told the media that they would revamp the local unit, but lack of consensus has led to a status quo.
The ruling BJP holds the North Goa seat, with Sripad Naik – the bahujan face of the party representing North Goa since 1999. The party has already made its official stand very clear, insiders say with the chief minister Manohar Parrikar reportedly saying that Sripad Naik would be the candidate for North Goa and Adv Narendra Sawaikar for South Goa, to the dismay of ex-Fatorda MLA Damu Naik’s supporters. The official announcement is to be made only after the party’s Central Parliamentary Board clears it.
However, this time the Congress is going to face a tough fight for the incumbent MP and though the grand old party has a reputation for nominating sitting MPs, there is still a lot of jockeying for the position – though nobody is coming on record.
The first name that springs up is of the evergreen Varca strongman Churchill Alemao. His daughter is the state Youth Congress chief and entitled to a MLA seat by virtue of that. So Churchill has the option to try for the MP seat. He claims that he is not vying for it, but if the party high command wants what can the loyal soldier do?
His nemesis, whom he defeated in the 2007 election, Luizinho Faleiro too has spoken up after a long tapasya. After his defeat he has managed to cement his position at the Centre. Today insiders say that nothing moves in Goa without his say. His birthday bash saw leaders or their representatives cutting across party lines make a beeline to greet him – including the relatives of some ruling party MLAs. But Faleiro is a shrewd politician and was the last leader who garnered an absolute majority in the assembly polls. He has expressed his willingness to serve the party in the state and could prove to be the ‘consensus’ candidate to help the party out.
However, Sardinha’s candidature cannot be ruled out and has wide acceptability especially among the majority community.
In the North, given that the Congress alliance partner the NCP is likely to get the seat, there has been a couple of takers for the seat. However, as usual, if the NCP gets this eat it is likely to go to a hired gun – there are a couple in the race at least as of today. One is the BJP MLA Vishnu Wagh – though he is unwilling to come on record, he has met the NCP supremo union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and has some very close contacts with people who are personally close to Pawar. As late as Sunday he as in Mumbai, ostensibly for a function.
The old warhorse Ramakant Khalap too is in the race, and has his backers – be it for the NCP seat or the Congress seat while another name that has come up occasionally is that of veteran politician Ravi Naik.
Ravi is holding his cards close to his chest; but in case the NCP concedes the north Goa seat to the Congress, Ravi is a strong contender.
Insiders say with the chief minister Manohar Parrikar reportedly favouring Sripad Naik as the candidate for North Goa and Adv Narendra Sawaikar for South Goa seat, has led to the dismay of ex-Fatorda MLA Damu Naik’s supporters
