SOIRU VELIP | NT Senior Reporter
PANAJI: BJP leaders have said that there is no need of any strategy to retain Catholic vote bank as development and welfare schemes brought about by their government will themselves work for the party to retain power in the state.
In 2012, the BJP came back to power with the support of Catholic voters, as six Catholic candidates put up by the party won the elections.
Moreover, the party cashed in on anti-incumbency against the Congress.
A BJP leader said that unlike the assembly elections of 2012, the party this time is approaching the voters, including Catholics, with its achievements of development carried out by the government in the last five years and various welfare schemes.
These achievements will stand in good stead for the party during the polls, he said.
It would be interesting to see whether the BJP will succeed in retaining the Catholic vote bank as many issues close to the heart of Catholics – medium of instruction, regional plan, shifting of casino vessels from the Mandovi river and special status to the state – have been hanging fire for the last five years.
A close relook at the electioneering during the 2012 assembly elections and the subsequent mandate reveals that a large of number of Catholics had voted for the BJP, making the party seize the power.
In 2012, the Catholic candidates of the BJP who had been elected as MLAs were Francis D’Souza (Mapusa), Michael Lobo (Calangute), Glenn Ticlo (Aldona), Carlos Almeida (Vasco), Nilesh Cabral (Curchorem) and Matanhy Saldanha (Cortalim).
However, unfortunately Matanhy Saldanha passed away after sometime.
Later, his wife Alina Saldanha was fielded as a BJP candidate in the by-election to the Cortalim seat and got elected unopposed in June 2012.
The BJP had also succeeded to win St Andre and Cuncolim constituencies with non-Catholic candidates. These two seats were earlier represented by the Congress. The BJP had extended support to two Independent Catholic candidates – Avertano Furtado in the Navelim assembly segment and Benjamin Silva in the Velim constituency, who won their respective seats.
Besides, the party had extended moral support to two candidates of the Goa Vikas Party – Francisco Xavier Pacheco (Nuvem) and Caetano Silva (Benaulim), who too got elected.
This time the BJP has shortlisted eight Catholic candidates, two more from the previous figure of six. The shortlisted Catholic nominees include the seven sitting MLAs.
However, the ruling party has not got a Catholic leader as strong as Matanhy Saldanha who could be used as minority face to garner votes in the Catholic-dominated constituencies.
Lobo said that this time the party has not planned out any specific strategy to reach out to the minorities as the BJP government has performed well by providing good governance and developmental works during the last five years.
“This time there is no strategy for the so-called minority or majority vote banks for the BJP, as it has decided to give ticket to eight Catholic candidates besides offering support to at least five Independent Catholic candidates. Since we have delivered what we had promised, there is no question of planning specific strategy by the party to reach out to minorities or majorities,” Lobo said.
He said the BJP is very confident of victory of its all eight Catholic candidates and Independent nominees to whom the party has decided to support in the election.
He opined that there is no need of any Catholic face in the party as the leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, MLA Nilesh Cabral and himself are capable enough to campaign for the party in the Catholic-dominated seats.
Stating that everything has its own time to get resolved, the BJP legislator maintained that various issues, including a legislation to continue grants to English medium primary schools and finalisation of regional plan, would be resolved once for all after the BJP comes back to power.