Goa's two major political parties, the ruling BJP and the Congress, on Thursday released their first list of candidates for the February 4 Assembly elections.
While the Congress list of 27 candidates includes names of four Chief Ministers and several fresh faces as candidates, the BJP list of 29 candidates includes the names of 19 sitting MlAs including Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza and six Cabinet Ministers.
The Congress candidate list issued by All Indian Congress Committee general secretary Madhusudan Mistry's includes the names of Pratapsingh Rane (Poriem), Ravi Naik (Ponda), Digambar Kamat (Margao) and luizinho Faleiro (Navelim) all of whom have served as Chief Ministers of the State over the last two decades.
Incidentally, Kamat was one of the main accused in the louis Berger scam and was chief minister when the controversial tender to build sewerage and water supply infrastructure was awarded to the international consultancy company.
The Congress also appears to have gone back on its own promise not to promote 'family raaj' by giving tickets to the husband-wife duo of Chandrakant Kavlekar (Quepem) and Savitri Kavlekar (Sanguem) and the father-son duo of Pratapsingh Rane (Poriem) and Vishwajit Rane (Valpoi).
Out of the list of 27 candidates, the Congress list also includes 11 candidates, who are either contesting State Assembly polls or are contesting on the Congress ticket for the first time.
Party sources said, that the remaining seats would be announced soon and would be dependent on the alliance talks with regional parties like Goa Forward and United Goans. “The rest of the names will be released in a few days,” party sources said.
There are not too many surprises in the BJP list of candidates which was announced by BJP leader JP Nadda in Delhi today.
For St Andre constituency, the BJP has announced the candidature of Ramrao Wagh, brother of sitting BJP MlA Vishnu Wagh, who suffered multiple heart attacks last year and has been hospitalised for several months now
Speaking to reporters in Goa, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who has been appointed as the party's official in-charge of overseeing poll preparations, said that there rest of the names would be announced in “two-three days”.
“Stable progress-oriented Government, employment generating Government, infrastructure developing Government and a Government, which through small schemes, provides support for Goan farmers, poor, and marginalised section, is the what the laxmikant Parsekar-led Government has given the people of Goa,” Gadkari said.
He, however, said that when the BJP comes back to power in Goa, the next chief minister could either be one selected from the lot of elected or the party would appoint a central leader from Goa to take up the chief ministerial job.
“We are confident that we will win more seats than last time and form our own government. Our new elected MlAs, will elect a new leader and its not necessary that this leader should be from the MlAs itself. We could send him from the Centre too. But we will do it in a democratic manner," Gadkari told reporters in Panaji.
He however did not name the central leader, but added that the proposal to possibly appoint a central leader as chief minister for Goa after the elections, had been vetted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.
There are two ministers in the Modi-led cabinet hailing from Goa are namely Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Union minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik.