MARGAO: Out of eight MLAs of Salcete taluka only two have remained loyal to their respective parties, five preferred to shift to other parties, and Luizinho Faleiro is out from the race.
Herald found out that only sitting MLAs of Margao constituency Digambar Kamat (Congress) and Vijai Sardesai (Goa Forward Party)are contesting again from parties they won from in the 2017 elections.
The MLAs who won on the Congress ticket—Wilfred D’sa (Nuvem), Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco (Curtorim), Clafacio Dias (Cuncolim) and Filipe Nery Rodrigues (Velim) have quit the party. Clafacio Dias this time contesting on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket and Filipe Nery Rodrigues is now hoping to be re-elected on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket from Velim constituency and Wilfred and Reginaldo are testing their abilities as Independent candidates.
Churchill Alemao who got elected on the NCP ticket in the last assembly elections, joined TMC. Former Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro after being declared as the Member of Parliament of Trinamool Congress (TMC) from Bengal has withdrawn as a candidate from Fatorda.
In the last assembly elections Wilfred D’sa (Nuvem) had pulled 9967 votes as a Congress candidate, whereas his rival and now NCP candidate Mickky Pacheco was able to get 4307 votes. Mariano Godinho had also pulled sizable votes of 3389 in the 2017 elections, and he is again in the race in Nuvem constituency as an AAP candidate.
In Curtorim Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, as a Congress candidate in the last elections had pulled 12,841 votes, and had won by the margin of 7,697 votes. While his rival BJP candidate Arthur D’Silva had pulled 5244 votes. However, in this election Reginaldo is contesting for the first time as an independent candidate.
Churchill Alemao as a NCP candidate was able to get 9,373 votes, and Royla Fernandes at the second position had pulled 4182 votes. Congress candidate Edwin Barretto was at the fourth position with 2157 votes. However, now political situations in Benaulim have changed a lot.
In Cuncolim, Clafacio Dias had won the Congress seat with a margin of just 33 votes, against his rival Joaquim Alemao who had pulled 6382 votes. While BJP candidate Rajan Naik was at the third position with 5047 votes.
Velim constituency had also witnessed an interesting battle between then Congress candidate Filipe Nery Rodrigues (10,417) and Independent candidate Benjamin Silva (5164). Now, Filipe Nery has preferred to contest on NCP after defection while, Benjamin is contesting from the TMC party.
Faleiro had won the Navelim seat on the Congress ticket with 8183 votes. His rival Avertano Furtado had pulled 5705 votes as an independent candidate, but now he is a Congress candidate.
Sitting MLA of Margao Digambar Kamat is the only Congress candidate in Salcete who remained loyal to his party, who had won the last elections with the margin of 4176 votes. He had pulled 12,105 votes. While BJP candidate Sharmad Raiturkar had got only 7,929 votes. Digambar will contest on the Congress ticket while BJP have replaced their candidate from Sharmad with former deputy Chief Minister and sitting MLA of Pernem constituency Manohar alias Babu Azgaonkar.
Vijai Sardesai is again contesting in Fatorda constituency as Goa Forward Party candidate, as he had pulled 10,516 votes in the last elections and had won by margin of 1334 votes. His rival BJP candidate Damu Naik was able to get 9,182 votes.
