Priest, farmer and medicine man first new faces of clean politics

TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: The Zagrut Goenkarancho Ekvott (ZGE), a socio political organisation floated mainly by members of the Pilerne Citizens Forum  has unveiled a list of four candidates, including a Catholic priest,  whom they have pledged support in a bid to “clean up the system from within.”

The four candidates — Pradeep Sangodkar of San André, Xavier Almeida of Taleigao, Fr Bismarque Dias from Cumbarjua and Clifton D’Souza from Velim all have a history of social work to their credit.

Pradeep Sangodkar, has been a consultant in alternative medicine in the constituency.

Xavier Almeida of the Taleigao Farmer’s Club has been instrumental in helping arrest conversion of paddy fields in Taleigao, besides adopting  modern farm  initiatives in collaboration with the ICAR.

Fr  Bismarque Dias is a vocal social activist  who has  spoken out against  several issues.

  Clifton D’Souza  plans to contest from Velim.

“This is the last chance for the people to save Goa. If we have another five years of misrule of the kind we’ve had for the past five years, then Goa will be finished. This is the only time to teach these MLAs a lesson, if  we hope to  save Goa and Goans,” Prakash Bandodkar , President of  the Pilerne Citizens Forum told reporters.

The Zagrut Goenkarancho Ekvott (ZGE) is predominantly contesting on the plank of  Regional Plan 2021, illegal mining besides  mis-governance.

“We do not believe in being out of the system. We’re trying to change the system from within.  We’re offering people a choice and it is for the people to decide whether they want to vote for us. But, we wish to tell that if you do not vote for us, you can consider Goa lost to people from outside,” said Yatish Naik, advisor of the  Pilerne Citizens Forum. 

Members have made it clear that they are not a political party and do not wish to register themselves as one either, but will support independents, provided they do  not belong to any party and have a history of doing good work in the state.

The ZGE has pledged to come out with more candidates within the next 10 days and also bring out a manifesto in the form of a “carefully worded vision document.”

“We are not here to win elections by any means. We are here to offer people a clean choice,” Naik said.