Goa vote count on Thursday: Hectic activities seen across political parties

With less than 24 hours to go before the results are declared to the 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly, candidates of the ruling BJP, the Congress, and new entrant TMC held meetings in state capital Panaji on Wednesday.

Senior leaders of all political parties are already in Goa for the counting. These include P Chidambaram, Dinesh Gundu Rao, D K Shivakumar and Satish Jarkiholi of the Congress, Abhishek Banerjee of TMC, and Atishi of AAP. Devendra Fadnavis and C T Ravi of the BJP are also expected later today.

In a show of unity among their candidates, most Congress candidates remained together and spent the night at a resort in Bambolim, a suburb of Panaji. The candidates also ringed in the birthday of Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, most of these candidates left the resort in north Goa for another resort in the south.

While this is being seen as means of protecting the candidates from falling prey to the BJP luring tactics, the candidates brushed it off saying the shift to another hotel, owned by Quepem candidate Altone D’ Costa was only to celebrate the birthday of another candidate.

Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar said that the meeting with candidates was informal and just a stock-taking exercise. “Our candidates cannot be poached now as the situation is different. The people of Goa want us to be together and it will be so. The anger among the electorate is so much that no candidate will think of switching sides,” he said. Chodankar said that Congress was in touch with all parties opposed to the BJP for government formation.

Most of the BJP leaders, the Goa Congress chief claimed, were in that party for power and not for the ideology or love for it. “The BJP of today is the old Congress. This election was old Congress vs new Congress. The new Congress will win because we are in the hearts of the Goans,” he said, adding that another meeting of party candidates will be held on Wednesday night.

Chodankar expressed confidence that the MGP will go with the Congress in government formation given the history of its leader Sudin Dhavlikar, who was instrumental in the BJP coming to power in 2017, being unceremoniously dropped by it later. “I don’t think they will ever forget what the BJP did to them by trying to finish the party,” Congress leader and party candidate from Calangute, Michael Lobo said.

Dhavlikar told the media that he was certain that no government formation was possible without his party support. “Any party that is a partner in the MGPs growth will be welcome. I will not back a government of the BJP led by Dr. Pramod Sawant,” he said.

The BJP held a meeting of its candidates in Panaji to discuss the counting day arrangements with regards to polling agents etc. Senior party leaders, including state president Sadanand Sheth Tanawade and chief minister Dr. Pramod Sawant, reiterated their confidence in forming the next government.

After a meeting of its party candidates chaired by party general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, TMC Goa chief Kiran Kandolkar said that the party was confident of emerging as a force that would hold the key to government formation along with its alliance partner, the MGP. “Our support would be required for the formation of the next government. Anyone who accepts the three major promises in the TMC manifesto – Griha Laxmi scheme to provide assured monthly income support to every household, Yuva Shakti card, a credit guarantee scheme for the youth, and Mhaje Ghar Maalki Hakk, a housing rights scheme will have our support,” Rajya Sabha MP and former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro said.

AAP Goa convenor and Mapusa candidate Rahul Mahambre said that his party will work to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Goa. “We will keep the interest of Goa always first. All indications are people of Goa want the current BJP dispensation to go,” Mahambre said.