PANJIM: The July 21 election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the State is going to be a battle between the State unit Presidents of the BJP and Congress, as both parties have fielded their chiefs as candidates.
The ruling coalition – BJP-MGP-Goa Forward-Independents – has fielded BJP State President Vinay Tendulkar, while the opposition Congress has re-nominated their newly-appointed party president and sitting MP Shantaram Naik.
Both candidates filed their nominations on Tuesday before the returning officer, Assembly Secretary Nilkant Subhedar. The electorate is made up by the MLAs. Naik’s six-year term in the Rajya Sabha is due to expire on July 28.
Tendulkar, a two-time party state president, has the upper hand in the election as the coalition has 21 MLAs in the 38-member Assembly. This includes 12 from the BJP and three each from MGP, Goa Forward and Independents. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane are not entitled to vote as they are not MLAs. Both will have to face the electorate in the by-polls in the next two months.
The Congress has 16 MLAs in the Assembly and there is one MLA of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
“All our coalition partners in the Goa government have supported me as and I am confident of winning. I expect that all will flow smoothly on the day of the elections,” Tendulkar told media persons after filing the nomination papers.
The Congress candidate too expressed confidence of winning the election for the third time in a row. “I am confident of my victory. The non-BJP parties or MLAs are secular forces and I am confident that these secular forces will support me,” Naik, the two-time RS MP said.
The candidates will now begin campaigning, wherein meetings will be held with elected representatives seeking support.
Scrutiny of nominations will be held on July 12 while the last day for withdrawal is July 14. Counting will take place on July 21 at 5 pm.
