Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is known as a very pragmatic politician. Even though he is a strong backer of his party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, he is not using Modi card in the Lok Sabha elections. Parrikar wants to project himself as a secular BJP chief minister and stays away from controversies. His government has six Roman Catholic MLAs and also has the backing of four other Roman Catholic MLAs. The deputy chief minister of Goa, Francis D'souza is also a Roman Catholic Christian.
Addressing an election meeting in Catholic dominated South Goa, Parrikar said, "I am a secular leader. My government is secular. We have so many Catholics in the government and party."
According to local political analysts, Parrikar is not banking on the 'NaMo wave' to win elections. He is talking about development and promises more, if the BJP is voted to power.
He makes it clear to the voters that 2 MPs from Goa make no difference to the Central government and it is not a matter of prestige for the party. He adds that two MPs from Goa can do a lot of difference to the state and the people should elect BJP MPs.
The BJP and the Congress won one seat each (North Goa and South Goa respectively) in 2009 elections.
North Goa: BJP faces a tough fight
According to local media reports, the BJP's Shripad Naik, a three-time MP and former minister in the NDA government is considered an ineffectual MP. He appears to have a wafer thin edge over his Congress rival, Ravi Naik whose alleged linkages to Goa's drug mafia have clouded his campaign.
Ravi Naik, a former chief minister, has been fielded by the Congress to cut into the numerically powerful Bhandari caste vote bank, which Shripad Naik is also keen on tapping. The third candidate in the fray is Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Dattaram Desai, whose campaign has lacked the energy so synonymous with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. Until last year, Desai was a key Shripad Naik supporter. The more votes he gets from his former mentor, the easier he makes it for the Congress candidate.
Former deputy chief minister Dayanand Narvekar, who resigned from the Congress shortly before the poll date was announced, is also contesting on a Goa Democratic Forum ticket and Suhas Naik of the Communist Party of India (M) are likely to be the also-rans in the contest.
South Goa
The contest spread out in South Goa. There are 12 candidates in the fray. Aleixo Reginaldo, has replaced sitting MP Francisco Sardinha as the Congress candidate in South Goa. According to local media reports, he is finding the going not so easy in the South Goa constituency which has returned a Congress candidate 10 times in 14 Lok Sabha polls. On 12 instances, the candidate has been a Roman Catholic.
The ruling BJP has fielded Narendra Savoikar, who is making every effort to win over the dominant Catholic votes in this Congress friendly constituency. However, a last-minute advisory issued by the influential Roman Catholic Church, asking the Catholic population, which is more than 27 per cent in the state, not to vote for "communal politics" seems to have dented the BJP's march in South Goa.
Former Goa chief minister and a former MP Churchill Alemao is contesting on Trinamool Congress ticket from South Goa. He quit the Congress, just two weeks ago. He is likely to eat into traditional Congress votes indirectly helping the BJP.
The AAP's Swati Kerkar and tribal leader Govind Gaude are two other important candidates in South Goa. Goa has more than 10.5 lakh registered voters. Voting will take place at 1,622 polling stations spread across 1,152 polling station locations on Saturday.
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