Team Herald
VADDIE: It’s 3.30 pm and Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, wants to strike a personal chord with the fishing community and the people of Benaulim. He’s coordinated his home stay and meal at the home of Minguel and Belinda Fernandes at Vaddie, near Trinity Beach.
Similarly to Manohar Parrikar’s campaign in 2012, Kejriwal decided not to check in into a hotel after his arrival in Goa but rather headed to a voter’s home. He had all this coordinated for him by former Benaulim Sarpanch and current AAP candidate from Benaulim Royla Fernandes.
Kejriwal walked into the home of Minguel at 3.30pm and helped himself with AAP convenor Elvis Gomes and others to a meal of bhaji and chapattis before he headed upstairs of the Minguel residence for a short nap. In between which he met and had a chat with the fishermen community and interacted with Benaulim villagers.
Minguel’s home overlooks the sea and the beach in his backyard. Minguel is a seafarer and comes from a fishermen’s family while his wife Belinda is a homemaker and they have two children Maverick who’s 17 and Maye who’s eight.
“It’s something I’ll always cherish and remember. Feels so good to be a host to Kejriwal and it’s so nice that he’s so simple, right. I was so worried when we planned this last night but it seemed like an easy one to pull off,” explains Minguel who is down from the ship for Christmas celebrations and who’s excited that he will stay on till elections and vote.
“I feel happy when I have guests, especially now that the home is so nicely done up and I am really grateful to be given an opportunity to be host to Arvind Kejriwal,” he added.
After his power nap, Kejriwal was done upstairs with a round of photographs with Minguel’s family before he headed downstairs to chat with Elvis who was busy writing his speech on the dining table for the Benaulim public meeting slated at Dando grounds, later in the evening.
After minutes of silence and everyone just stares at each other, the Delhi CM and the Goa CM hopeful appears to be stuck for words and were busy pondering the political future until Elvis broke the silence and told Kejriwal his schedule for the evening.
“Have some cakes, it’s really yummy though I avoid sweets, I will also each some,” was Kejriwal’s way to break the deadlock and silence with the media and he quickly was seen with a tray serving everybody coconut cake, traditionally known as Batica in Goa.
Kejriwal was quickly done with tea, interacted a little with the media, where he downplayed addressing rallies and quickly stated that Goa is a small state and in Goa our AAP meetings seem to have turnouts that are too small. He thanked the Fernandes family, after addressing the media to clarify that demonetisation and criticising Modi was not his only goal and by 5.30pm, when Elvis and Arvind had confirmation that the crowds at Dando Ground were large enough for them to be received with cheers is when they headed to Dando grounds, Benaulim. Almost forty-five minutes late for the public meeting since Elvis was wary of the low turnout and even had excuses that people were paid to stay away from Kejrival’s meeting.
