NESHWIN ALMEIDA
neshwinalmeida@herald-goa-com
MARGAO: It’s kind of odd how this five-year old relationship is starting to look like. In 2012, the BJP extended support to Avertano Furtado to beat Chrchill. Though the BJP had a full majority, they even gave Avertano a ministry in the Manohar Parrikar government and also in the Laxmikant Parsekar cabinet and said he was being awarded the same as the giant killer. It then even looked like the BJP paved way for an Avertano sweep by putting Churchill in jail and closing his chapter in Navelim’s politics.
“To be honest, I never wanted any BJP or any other party tag and hence, I decided to go solo and Independent thought I was with the BJP government all this while. But now there isn’t really any commitment from the BJP. Actually their mandal members Damodar Naik, Ulhas and Shaikh Jina are fighting and waiting for the party to declare a candidate in Navelim, so I can’t say, I have the backing of the BJP,” Avertano Furtado complained.
Avertano also laughs at Luizinho’s drama and says it is not so simple to arrive late at the table and be hopeful to eat the entire cake, obviously people know how greedily he wanted the Congress party ticket and return to politics but this comeback will be futile. While Avertano downplays NCP’s George Barreto stating that George is misled and sore that he was denied a ZP election after Navelim was declared OBC reserved, but Avertano denies having a role in that. He also downplayed AAP and the Siddarth Karapurkar threat since Siddarth and George had campaigned for him last polls. Avertano feels he neither needs the BJP or other parties since he claims to have fulfilled his manifesto 100% in Navelim.
Meanwhile, another former friend of the BJP is the man in 2012 soon after Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as CM, he took him for a nice scooter ride in Benaulim. Caitu Silva, who’s faced the threat of almost being disqualified in a citizenship case, has different things to say of his government.
“Parrikar did a lot of my work, but I never shared that relationship with Parsekar. In fact, Parsekar and the BJP works closely with Churchill despite Churchill going to jail in the JICA bribery case,” claims Caitu.
Caitu who didn’t want a tie-up with Mickky Pacheco, BJP or with anybody else says that going solo is the best thing. He even laughs at AAP and its big turnouts in Benaulim stating that the silent voter favours only Caitu as an independent MLA.
“Every party has its negatives. The BJP is also out of favour after making many U-turns and mistakes in the last five years. I don’t want that to wear off on me and my candidature. I would preferably go alone on my own credentials,” exclaimed Caitu.
Similarly another friend of the BJP but now riding solo is Benjamin D’Silva in Velim constituency. Like Navelim and Benaulim, Velim was never a stronghold of BJP and it always supports an Independent. They’ve done that in the past with Philip Neri Rodrigues too but in 2005 that ended on a sour note when BJP members faked Neri’s sign and tried to disqualify him stating that he was their MLA and hence can’t defect.
Benjamin with the BJP support lost 2007 but won 2012 and overcame Neri. Just like how Avertano was labour minister in the BJP governments, Benjamin was chairman of Khadi Board besides calling the shots in the fisheries department since his brother is one the biggest trawler owners in Goa.
But Benjamin had a press conference with sarpanchas and panchas and ex-panchas as a show of strength and declared his candidature from Velim but he too refused to join the BJP and justified why he should not contest on the Lotus ticket.
“I prefer to stay independent and let people judge me for my work, since they had elected me independent and I will seek elections that way,” he says.
Sadly, Salcete is cruel to Independents seeking a re-election but in 2012 Salcete trusted Independents. The question now in 2017 is how history will craft itself and will these three Avertano, Caitu and Benjamin emerge victorious or will they fall flat on their face?
