The elections to the Lok Sabha are a couple of months away, and in a staggered voting system, Goa would possibly vote sometime in April this year.
It may appear early to be discussing the polls, but the whispers are already doing the rounds and though the Election Commission has not yet announced the dates, the political cauldron is stirring up and bubbling up names of possible candidates.
Goa’s major parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress appear to have come to some kind of a shortlist of candidates, while other parties are also shoving ahead and declaring candidates, in the hope of being the first to announce their nominees.
Currently, Goa’s two Lok Sabha seats are shared by the BJP and the Congress.
As reported, the BJP has one name on the list of candidates for North Goa which is that of sitting MP and Union Minister Shripad Naik, but has about five possible candidates in South Goa, including Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, former CM Digambar Kamat, former MP Narendra Sawaikar and others.
Of course, the candidate could always be somebody not on this list and some other names have been doing the rounds of the political grapevine.
On the other hand, the Congress which invited applications from its members for the ticket, generated much attention with 15 of its members displaying interest in contesting the elections.
This included sitting MP Francisco Sardinha in South Goa along with former GPCC chief Girish Chodankar and Capt Viriato Fernandes.
In North Goa, among the list of claimants is former Union minister Ramakant Khalap along with Mahesh Mhambrey and Bhike.
But, what is stirring the cauldron on the other side is the announcement by some other parties of names of candidates. For instance, posters of the Revolutionary Goans Party candidate are already up in North Goa.
With just one MLA in the Legislative Assembly, the party has much work to do before it can challenge the major parties in a Lok Sabha election, but the early start gives it the opportunity to portray the others as late starters.
On the other hand, South Goa is turning interesting – it usually does – as the Aam Aadmi Party announced that its Benaulim MLA, Capt Venzy Viegas, would be its nominee. It didn’t stop at that, but, went on to say that Viegas would be the I.N.D.I.A. candidate.
Congress, of course, protested and said there were no discussions with them on this.
But discussions apart, would Congress give up a seat which it is holding to another party? Or rather, why should Congress relinquish this seat that it holds to the AAP?
Besides, the South Goa seat has been a Congress bastion in the past and it has lost it narrowly, mainly through splits in votes. So, how does the AAP projecting itself in the constituency affect equations here?
While those questions are being debated, and we could get the answers to this in the coming weeks, what AAP has effectively done is managed for itself the upper hand in negotiations for seat sharing in Goa.
While it is always possible that AAP may have a candidate in South Goa, it is most unlikely that he or she would be an I.N.D.I.A. candidate. Congress will not let go of the South ticket easily.
Which, in the case of there being an I.N.D.I.A. understanding in Goa, does it mean that AAP would get the North Goa seat and Congress fight in the South? Is the posturing in South Goa a ploy to negotiate on the North Goa seat?
Given the strength of the BJP in Goa at the present time, an I.N.D.I.A. seat sharing is the only hope for the opposition in the State.
Even before elections can be announced, the BJP has the upper hand in the North Goa constituency, and Congress will struggle to retain the South Goa seat if it fights on its own.
Any split in votes, which will occur in case all the parties fight individually, will benefit the BJP in both seats.
Against this background, Goa is in for some stimulating political times and discussions. It will be a hot summer for the State, and the heat is already being felt in more ways than one.
Not only are temperatures rising, but it will be politically hot, too.
