The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Former law minister on Cong Goa list, sitting MP dropped
THE CONGRESS has named former Union Law Minister Ramakant Khalap as its candidate from the North Goa constituency and retired Naval officer Captain Viriato Fernandes from the South Goa seat in its latest list for the coming Lok Sabha polls that was released on Saturday.
Khalap is known for introducing the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha in 1996; the legislation kept lapsing until the BJP government passed it in 2023. From 1996-98, Khalap was a minister in the United Front coalition government led by HD Deve Gowda and IKGu jr al. In this period, he was the North Go aMP on a Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) ticket. After Khalap’s tenure, the BJP has managed to win and retain North Goa.
The Congress hopes Khalap’s experience and legacy will help as he takes on BJP’S Shripad Naik. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Naik had won North Goa after defeating Congress’s Girish Chodankar. He continues to remain popular in the constituency.
Fern an des, the Congress choicefor south goa, has been picked over party's sitting MP Francisco
Sardinha,afour-timewinningmp from south goa.sa rd in hat old the media he was “disappointed but not hurt”. South Goa saw a close fight in 2019 with Sardinha defeating BJP’S Narendra Sawaikar.
A senior Congress leader said the decision to replace Sardinha was “based on surveys conducted by the party and alliance partners in INDIA bloc”. The main criteria is winnability. The age factor may also have worked against Sardinha," the leader said
Congress leader Yuri Alemao, the Leader of Opposition in the Goa Legislative Assembly said, “The decision has been taken by the party high command. I cannot comment on what the reason was...”
After opting for voluntary retirement from Navy, Fernandes made his debut in electoral politics in the 2022 Goa Assembly polls and contested from South Goa’s Dabolim constituency. He lost to BJP’S Mauvin Godinho. Fernandes will be up against industrialist Pallavi Dempo who is the first woman candidate to have been fielded by the BJP in a parliamentary election in Goa.
South Goa seat has a sizable Christian population and is considered a Congress bastion. The party has won the seat 10 times, while the BJP has won it twice (1999 and 2014). In 10 of the 20 Assembly seats in South Goa, the Christian vote varies from 40% to 70% and an overwhelming majority of it traditionally goes to the Congress. Party leaders said with the nomination of another Christian candidate in South Goa, the party will be able to consolidate the voter base.
Alemao said he was “confident that INDIA bloc candidates will be voice of Goa in Parliament with the support and blessings of Goans”. BJP Goa chief Sadanand Sh et tan a va de said it did“not matter who the candidates are ”.“The BJP will win both the Lok Sabha seats with a big margin,” he said.