NCP eyes post-poll role in Goa if it improves tally of 1 notched up in 2017

Despite making a late entry into the electoral fray in Goa, the NCP has expressed confidence of improving its tally of one MLA in 2017 to at least 3 and assuming a key post-poll role along with the Shiv Sena in the next government’s formation.

The NCP, which is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in neighbouring Maharashtra, is contesting 13 seats.

In 2017, its candidate Churchill Alemao was elected from Benaulim. Alemao, who was batting for an NCP-Congress alliance, recently switched allegiance to the TMC.

The Sharad Pawar-led party is replicating its Maharashtra partnership in Goa, minus the Congress, by contesting polls in alliance with the Shiv Sena, which has fielded candidates in 10 seats.

Prominent NCP candidates for the 2022 elections include Filipe Neri Rodrigues, who till recently was the Water Resources Minister in the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government and former minister Mickey Xavier Pacheco who lost out on a Congress nomination, following which he switched parties.

NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto, one of the party’s star campaigners, expressed confidence of the party playing a crucial post-poll role while he was campaigning for party candidates in Navelim and Dabolim.

“We are looking at 2-3 seats where we are expecting to do pretty well. Our candidates are formidable and have worked on the ground. We are definitely set to play an important role post the results on March 10 to form a non-BJP government,” Crasto said.

Among the seats that the NCP is hopeful of winning are Velim where Rodrigues is a candidate, Benaulim where Pacheco is contesting and Navelim from where it has Rehan Mujawwar as its candidate.

State NCP chief Jose Philip is contesting from Dabolim, while Digavijay Verlekar in Priol and Dr Subhash Prabhu Desai in Shiroda are the other candidates whose names were declared in the party’s first list.

All the seats are set to have multi-cornered fights with the Congress, AAP, TMC, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Goa Forward Party and independents in the fray.

The Shiv Sena, which originally fielded 11 candidates in the elections, decided to withdraw the candidature of its Panaji candidate in favour of Utpal Parrikar, son of late chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who is in the fray as an independent after being denied a ticket by the BJP.

Jitesh Kamat, party's Goa unit chief and candidate for Mapusa constituency, said, "We want justice for the sons of the soil. Our resolve is that 80 per cent of the private sector jobs should be for Goans. You can clearly see that the sons of the soil agenda have not being implemented here "

Sena MP Sanjay Raut speaking to the media confessed that there is a lot of confusion on the ground in Goa. “There’s BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and other parties. And in this overall confusion, the NCP and Shiv Sena thought that though we may not be in a position to form a government, we will have a respectable number of seats and can play an important role in the formation of the government,” he said.