Goa: Record first time MLAs elected in Legislative Assembly

Nineteen of the newly-elected MLAs to the Goa Legislative Assembly are first-timers, while two political parties, the Aam Aadmi Party and Revolutionary Goans Party are making their debut in the 40-member legislature.

Making up 47% of the next assembly, these first-time MLAs are from across party lines. Of these 19, two are women. While eight are from the Congress party, five are from the BJP, two are from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), two are Independents, and one each from the Revolutionary Goans Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).

Among the two women, first-time MLAs are BJP’s Deviya Rane, who took over the legacy of her father-in-law and veteran Congressman Pratapsingh Raoji Rane. She won the Poriem constituency of north Goa with a winning margin of over 13,943 votes. Her husband Vishwajit Rane also won on a BJP ticket from the neighbouring Valpoi constituency.

The other first-time winner is Delilah Lobo of the Congress who won the Siolim seat. While Deviya Rane has no experience of electoral politics, barring her association with the Rane family, Delilah Lobo is the present sarpanch of Parra village panchayat in Bardez taluka. This term of the Goa legislative assembly will have three women MLAs including Taleigao BJP MLA Jennifer Monserrate.

Among the parties making a debut into the Goa Legislative Assembly with two winning seats is the AAP. Captain Venzy Viegas and Engineer Cruz Silva won in Benaulim and Velim, respectively. While Viegas was fighting the polls for the first time, Silva had contested in 2017 also from the same party. Captain Viegas emerged as a giant killer by defeating the Trinamool Congress candidate and former chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Churchill Alemao. The TMC, despite an all-out campaign could not win a single seat.

The Revolutionary Goans Party which made its debut in the 2022 elections also managed to bag one seat. Viresh Borkar, 28, upset the prospects of sitting BJP MLA Francis Silveira. Silveira, a 4-term MLA, was among 9 of the 12 defectors from the previous assembly who tasted defeat in these elections.

For the Congress party, its plan of backing its block-level party workers with tickets worked wonders with its candidate from Mormugao, Sankalp Amonkar, and the candidate from Quepem, Altone D’Costa emerging winners. While Amonkar exposed an alleged sex scandal forcing minister Milind Naik to resign ended defeating him, D’Costa managed to send deputy CM and former Congressman Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar home.

Like Amonkar, Congress candidates Yuri Alemao from Cuncolim, and Rudolfo Fernandes from Santa Cruz will be in the state legislative assembly after previous failed attempts in 2017. Rajesh Faldessai in Cumbharjua also sprung a surprise win from the Congress just as advocate Carlos Ferreira and Kedar Naik won in Aldona and Saligao seats in Bardez taluka respectively.

For the MGP, its candidate from Mandrem Jit Arolkar, who had earlier lost as an independent returned as the winner defeating Dayanand Sopte of the BJP and former chief minister and independent candidate Laxmikant Parsenkar. Likewise, in Bicholim, independent candidate and well-known ophthalmologist Dr. Chandrakant Shetye emerged as a first-time MLA by defeating two former MLAs, BJP’s Rajesh Patnekar and MGP’s Naresh Sawal.

Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardessai, who was the lone winner from his party which had given two fresh faces in 2017, said, “When people compare the new Congress, which has fielded 75% new faces in these elections, with the BJP, the contrast is stark. Nearly 50% of candidates fielded by the ruling party were defectors or from defector families,” he pointed out.