Friends-turned-foes to slug it out in Marcaim

The Marcaim constituency is all set for the no-holds-barred contest with friends turned foes - former Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar, who recently joined the Congress, and incumbent Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLA Sudin Dhavalikar - preparing to slug it out against each other in next month's Goa Assembly elections.

Marcaim, which has been an MGP bastion, has been considered as Dhavalikar's stronghold. However, after Congress named former MGP leader Mamledar as its candidate from Marcaim, Dhavalikar will face a tough contest from the former Ponda MLA.

The rift

Mamledar, who was part of the core leadership group of MGP up until 2019, joind Trinamool Congress last year. However, he had to leave the Mamata Banerjee-led party after it allied with MGP. Mamaledar joined Congress this year and vowed to defeat Dhavlikar if Congress fields him from Marcaim.

Incidentally, both Mameledar and Dhavlikar had a falling out in 2017 after years of being part of the same core group. It was Dhavalikar who brought in former policeman and friend Mamledar into politics and fielded him against Ravi Naik from Ponda constituency in 2012. Mamledar defeated the heavyweight Naik and became a first-time MLA.

As Mamledar grew in stature, differences between the two began to simmer. Their friendship turned sour after Mamledar was defeated in the 2017 elections. The rift between the two heavyweights finally came to the fore when Dhavalikar inducted Ketan Bhatikar as the new leader in Ponda and sidelined Mamledar. Mamledar's constant attacks on party elections also created friction between the two leaders. Later in 2019, MGP expelled its general secretary, Mamledar, for six years for anti-party activity.

MGP bastion

Marcaim has always been a stronghold of MGP since the first general elections. However, BJP won the seat in 1994 when the MGP had a pre-poll alliance with the BJP. Former Chief Minister Ravi Naik has represented this seat for three terms until 1994 when he was a part of MGP.

Presently, Sudin has represented the constituency for more than 2 decades now. He had debuted with 38.94 per cent votes in 1999 and in 2002 he polled 63.91 per cent votes. In 2007, Dhvalikar won the seat by a thumping majority of 7,609 votes over his rival Congress candidate. In 2012, Dhavalikar defeated Congress candidate, Ritesh, the son of Ponda MLA Ravi Naik. In 2017, he polled in 73.2 per cent votes to defeat his nearest rival Pradeep Shet of BJP.

However, this time around the fight for Marcaim will witness a neck-and-neck fight between the two friends-turned-foes

The election for the 40 seats will take place on February 14, and the ballots will be counted on March 10.