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6 Congressmen in race for Goa leadership

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panjim

The Congress has ultimately succeeded in establishing a wafer-thin majority of one in the 40-member Goa legislative assembly while the Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the main opposition party with 10 seats, leaving the three regional parties far behind.

All-India Congress Committee general secretary Madhavrao Scindia is rushing to Goa tomorrow morning, after which the Congress Legislature Party will meet to elect its leader.

"It is a clear signal for the coming general elections that the country is going to stand by party supremo Sonia Gandhi," said AICC secretary Ramesh Chennithala.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party has been reduced to just four members in the assembly, including former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap.

Dr Kashinath Jhalmi, former leader of the Opposition in the assembly, former chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar and party chief Surendra Sirsat were among the prominent MGP politicians to face a miserable defeat.

The Goa Rajiv Congress and the United Goans Democratic Party could not score more than two wins each, including GRC leader and former chief minister Wilfred de Souza. Both parties, however, played a major role in reducing the strength of the Congress.

Only one independent, Isidore Fernandes, the Congress rebel from Poinguinim, won this time. Though Fernandes pushed former Congress minister Vasu Paik Gaonkar to third position, he is now likely to support the Congress government, increasing its strength to 22.

Luizinho Faleiro, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief and former chief minister, admitted that his party could have won a comfortable majority had it not been for the rebels. Some of the rebels had also joined regional outfits, of whom one each won as an MGP and GRC candidate.

Describing the victory as a clear-cut mandate in favour of the Congress and its leader Sonia Gandhi when the country is going in for a mid-term general election, Faleiro promised that the party would not have a Cabinet of more than six members, as assured in the party's manifesto.

Though Faleiro and Pratapsing Rane, another former chief minister, have left the decision on the CLP leadership to the high command, at least four other Congressmen -- Ravi Naik, Churchill Alemao, Francisco Sardinha and Dayanand Narvekar -- have told the media that they are in the race.

The game will thus begin with six politicians in the race for the chief minister's chair. And Wilfred de Souza has also shown an inclination to rejoin the Congress. If that happens, the Congress will have 23 members in the House.

The biggest gainer, however, has been the BJP, which has increased its strength from four to 10, though its chief ministerial candidate Shripad Naik lost to a new entrant of the MGP. Except for two former legislators, all the other eight BJP winners are new faces.

At least five former chief ministers, including de Souza, are among the legislators elected, while 22 former legislators, including 11 former ministers, most of them from the Congress, also won.

Among those defeated are former speaker Tomazinho Cardoz, a Congress candidate, as well as 25 former legislators, including 12 former ministers. In spite of defections being a major issue in Goa this time, several politicians with a history of defections behind them were elected.

While Rane feels the mandate is clearly in favour of the national parties and the regional parties should wind up, MGP politician Khalap prefers to look at it as an "eye-opener" and plans to take concrete steps to shore up his party's standing.

In Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi hailed the result and assured Goans that the party would fulfil its promises.

In a message, she also thanked party workers for their relentless effort to achieve victory.

Releasing the message at a press conference, Scindia said the result was a verdict for stability and an expression of faith in the Congress manifesto.

Scindia said the verdict was a major setback for the BJP whose votes had come down. Though the Congress won both the Lok Sabha seats from Goa in 1998, the BJP had led in 18 of the 40 assembly segments, he pointed out.

Comparing figures, he said the Congress had improved its share of the votes to 40 per cent from the 31.5 per cent it had received in the 1998 Lok Sabha election. The BJP's share on the other hand had gone down from 30.2 to 23 per cent. Even if the shares of the BJP and the MGP were combined, it would be 2 per cent less than that of the Congress.

Scindia said the CLP is likely to meet tomorrow. He too said the Congress ministry would be compact and comprise not more than six or seven ministers, besides the chief minister.

He also promised a stable, transparent, effective and efficient government.

(With reports from UNI)

EARLIER REPORT:
Congress captures power in Goa

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