Ramnath N Pai Raikar | NT
PANAJI: The St Andre constituency, which has majority of its votes divided between the Scheduled Tribe community and the minority Catholic community, is presently placed in a strange situation, with its sitting MLA, Vishnu Wagh recuperating in a Mumbai-based hospital since past five months, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, to which he belongs, fielding Wagh’s brother – Ramrao – as the last minute replacement.
St Andre, which had been for long, a bastion of the Congress party, had Francisco Silveira of that party representing this constituency on consecutive three occasions – following 1999, 2002 and 2007 state assembly polls – but lost to Vishnu Wagh, who won at the 2012 election, riding on the BJP wave at that time. The wave no more exists, and also Vishnu Wagh is no more the candidate. Under these circumstances, Ramrao, who neither has any political experience nor a base for social work in this constituency, will have to face his main rival Francisco Silveira, apart from eight other rivals.
Ramrao has education as well as strong support of the BJP workers backing him. He is also visiting every house in the constituency to introduce himself to the voters.
As per the statistics, out of the 20,834 voters in this constituency altogether 11,147 are female voters, which is more than the male voters. It would, therefore, not be a surprise to see the candidates giving women-centric assurances in their manifestos.
During the 2012 state assembly election, Vishnu Wagh had managed to garner 8,818 votes as against 7,599 polled by Francisco Silveira, thus winning by a margin of 1,219 votes. The visit of the then leader of the opposition, Manohar Parrikar to various families in this constituency, as a part of BJP’s Parivartan Yatra, also played a crucial role in the victory of Wagh.
Today, as the things stand, the people of St Andre, in general, are frustrated over non-fulfillment of assurances by their sitting MLA. They are openly speaking about lack of development of the constituency during past five years, besides unemployment, a serious issue in this constituency, having assumed alarming proportions. Many of the youth from this constituency have been forced to move out of Goa, either to other states or other countries, in search of jobs, during last five years. Another problem haunting this constituency is the deletion of names of many of the local voters from the electoral rolls, who have gone for Portuguese nationality. Ramrao will have to face brunt of all these issues. Furthermore, it is learnt that Aruna Wagh, the wife of Vishnu Wagh has refused to endorse the BJP candidature of Ramrao, thus Ramrao having no support from the home front.
Francis Silveira, on the other hand has an advantage of having no anti-incumbency tag. His portfolio also shows that during his career as the local legislator, he had constructed a by-pass road, a playground and a panchayat ghar in the constituency. Furthermore, in spite of his defeat at the 2012 state assembly poll, Silveira had continued with his social work in St Andre, which gives him an edge over his rivals.
Rama Kankonkar of Aam Aadmi Party and Dhaku Madkaikar, an independent candidate, who are also contesting in the St Andre constituency, will attract the votes from the Schedule Tribe community, while Jagdish Bhobe of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, who has been the sarpanch of the Goa Velha village panchayat for long, has assured jobs for youth from the constituency and hence could claim many of the votes. Bhobe also enjoys the advantage of the support from the local volunteers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, under the banner of Goa Suraksha Manch, who are campaigning for him.
Dattaram Chari of Nationalist Congress Party and Leocardio Monteiro of Goa Su-Raj Party, besides independents namely Ashwin Rosario, Simao Caiado and Sunil Kerkar are also in the fray in this constituency. They all have given stress on door-to-door campaign and are stressing on personal meetings with the voters.
St Andre includes places like Agassaim, Dongrim, Mandur, Curca, Talaulim, Bambolim, Siridao and Goa Velha, besides others. Many of these places still face inconvenience related to basic amenities like water, power, roads and traffic. In spite of being close to the capital city, St Andre still thirsts for development. The voters of this constituency, therefore, are in no mood for hollow assurances, and could go for a candidate, who would satiate this thirst.