Team Herald
PANJIM: Several veteran Congress politicians, who had been shown the door in 2012, have returned to the House five years later to start a new chapter in their political career, even as some proved to be giant killers.
Interestingly, the House will see five ex-CMs, including Pratapsingh Rane, who has continued his winning spree. Almost six Congress (one former NCP) veterans – Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik, Dayanand Sopte, Subhash Shirodkar, Isidore Fernandes and Nilkanth Halarnkar – who had faced defeats in earlier elections, bounced back with huge margins.
Sopte led the winning trend for the party by defeating CM Laxmikant Parsekar with a huge margin of 7221 votes. If this was not enough, Shirodkar defeated yet another BJP Minister, Mahadev Naik, in Shiroda who has represented the constituency for two terms. Two former Congressmen – Churchill Alemao (NCP) and Manohar Azgaonkar (MGP) – also figure in the list of winners. Azgaonkar, who quit Congress a little before the polls and joined MGP, won from Pernem constituency defeating former Speaker and Minister Rajendra Arlekar.
Congress President Faleiro, who had last contested and lost from Navelim in 2007, returns to State politics after a decade. After serving the party at the national level, Faleiro was sent back to Goa in 2014 to breathe life into the party. He steered the party and won by a margin of 2400 votes against Minister Avertano Furtado, making him a strong contender for the Chief Minister’s post.
Former Chief Minister and Home Minister Ravi Naik, who faced defeat in 2012 after being embroiled in a number of controversies including the infamous politician-police-drug nexus, managed to regain his hold over Ponda constituency. He defeated MGP’s Lavoo Mamledar.
In Canacona, Isidore Fernandes, who has announced he will retire from politics after this term, managed to regain the faith of the voters and won against strong contenders like BJP’s Vijay Pai Khot and Independent Ramesh Tawadkar.
Churchill Alemao helped the Nationalist Congress Party stay in contention in the State with his victory in Benaulim. In 2012 he had been rejected from Navelim on a Congress ticket and also lost the Lok Sabha polls 2014 that he had contested on a Trinamool Congress ticket.
