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Goa voter has very little choice

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The Goan voter, disgusted as he/ she is with the defection games, has been left with very little choice in the June 4 assembly elections, as nearly 50 per cent of the key contestants are defectors.

Of the 156 serious candidates including 16 prominent independents, at least 66 are considered 'defectors'.

Twenty-five rebel Congressmen, who have been expelled from the party, are in the fray. However, Goa Congress unit chief Luizinho Faleiro has refused to state that their support would not be sought in case the party is in a position to form a government after the elections.

The Congress has reportedly fielded the highest number of defectors - 21 out of its 39 candidates fall in this category.

The Goa Rajiv Congress, a breakaway Congress group led by former chief minister Wilfred de Souza, has fielded 14 candidates, of whom 11 are defectors. de Souza, having defected at least five times during his three-decade-long political career, had said that he was a loyal Congressman. He would align with the Congress, if necessary, after the polls.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, considered the prime opposition, has fielded 11 defectors, five of whom are Congress rebels. "It is part of rannaniti (battlefield strategy)," said MGP chief Surendra Sirsat.

The United Goans Democratic Party, having created its base among the Catholic-dominated areas on an anti-Congress plank, has fielded five defectors, all of whom have been denied tickets either by the Congress or the GRC.

The Bharatiya Janata Party too is not far behind. Two former Congressmen won the 1994 elections on its tickets. This time it has filed a former MGP leader against its one-time leader Pandurang Raut who had joined the MGP after a brief stint with the Congress.

The 66 defectors include at least six former chief ministers, including Shashikala Kakodkar of the MGP, de Souza of the GRC, Pratapsing Rane, Churchill Alemao, Ravi Naik and Luizinho Faleiro of the Congress. Alemao, de Souza and Naik had defected only to capture the CM's chair.

Twenty-one former ministers figure in the defectors' list, 10 of whom had been ministers in the recently dissolved assembly.

Of the six rebel Congress candidates, 75-year-old Deu Mandrekar has defected 10 times to date. He is now contesting as an independent following the Republican Party of India's refusal to allot him a seat.

He defected four times in the last assembly. As he was not in a condition to take oath as minister, his nephew did the needful at one such ceremony.

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