Sandesh Prabhudesai
10 Feb 1998
To win back its traditional seat of Mormugao constituency (known as
South Goa seat) from the controversial strongman Churchill Alemao, the ruling Congress
party has this time fielded a new candidate, denying ticket to former union minister
Eduardo Faleiro. But prospects of former state minister Francisco Sardinha, the Congress
candidate, are still hanging fire.
Ending the Congress hegemony of five terms since 1977, Alemao’s
United Goans Democratic Party has emerged as a fierce challenge to the ruling Congress
party as well as the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, led by union law minister Ramakant
Khalap. While the Congress relies more upon the minority Catholic vote bank, Hindu bahujan
samaj is the MGP’s vote bank.
Taking everybody by surprise, Alemao however has made a major
breakthrough in both the vote banks, especially winning over the bahujan samaj of
both the communities, who are fed up with upper class politics of the Congress and the
MGP. It was a great shock to the ruling Congress here when Alemao defeated Faleiro by over
25,000 votes in last elections.
Countering the post-emergency propaganda of the Janata Party leaders in
Goa, Faleiro had won the South Goa seat for the first time. Since then, he never polled
less than 50 per cent votes, in five consecutive elections he contested till 1991. He also
remained a union minister from the time Congress started ruling once again since 1980,
till he lost elections last time.
Besides literally hijacking the Catholic-dominated talukas of Salcete
(8 Assembly segments) and Mormugao (3 Assembly segments), Faleiro had also established his
undisputed rule in the remaining four Hindu-dominated talukas (comprising 10 Assembly
segments). Even the traditional MGP voters here always voted for Faleiro though they
favoured the MGP for Assembly elections.
But the same voter made a sudden volte face in ’96 polls, while
Alemao himself was not confident of his victory when he entered the fray. Despite being
the MLA from Benaulim, he had decided to contest simply to check the strength of his newly
floated regional outfit, the UGDP, which had won three Assembly seats in ’94 polls in
South Goa.
In fact, he was in favour of supporting Sardinha as the rebel candidate
since the ruling party had denied him the Congress ticket. Besides negative voting due to
his rude and careless behaviour, Faleiro was also defeated by his own partymen including
Sardinha, who worked for Alemao’s victory.
Apparently this is the reason why Faleiro, after being assured of the
Rajya Sabha ticket, has left for a foreign tour instead of working for Sardinha. Even his
(Faleiro’s) supporters learnt to have been working for Alemao today, to defeat
party’s official candidate.
Besides few MLAs close to Faleiro camp, a couple of ministers as well
as Congress MLAs learnt to have conspired with Alemao to defeat Sardinha. They apparently
fear that Sardinha would emerge as the South Goa leader, if elected, threatening their
positions among the Catholic community.
But Alemao denies that he would benefit from negative voting. Throwing
the figures at face, he claims that even Faleiro had retained the same number of votes he
got in ’91, with a difference of hardly 5000 votes. But he hides the fact that
Faleiro’s voting percentage came down from 40 per cent to 25 per cent, because around
18 per cent more people had voted in ‘96.
In comparison, the controversial UGDP supremo polled over one lakh
votes, with each and every party losing votes to him. Besides polling around 26 per cent
of the Congress votes, he also weakened the MGP by eight per cent, despite a fact that Dr
Kashinath Jalmi, the state opposition leader, was contesting against him. Even the BJP
lost three per cent votes to him.
Except in Ponda taluka, where he could not counter the MGP, and in
Canacona taluka, where Faleiro somehow managed to retain edge over him, Alemao literally
swept the polls in ’96. Besides scoring a huge margin over the Congress in the
Catholic-dominated Salcete and Mormugao talukas, he also secured comfortable margin in
Hindu areas.
The situation has changed a bit, but not much, in last 21 months. With
Sardinha entering the fray, who had actually miserably lost ’94 Assembly polls to the
UGDP candidate, the ruling party is in a comfortable position this time. Alemao’s 53
per cent voting in Salcete and 40 per cent voting in Mormugao is bound to get affected
severely, as Sardinha may also get a sympathy vote.
"How is it possible ? He is known as one of the most corrupt
minister during his four terms due to the marks scandal, meat complex scandal, dam scandal
and the power scandal. At least Faleiro was not a corrupt man", retaliates Alemao. He
is totally dependent upon returns for his work and utilisation of the MP’s funds in
the tribal areas.
On the other hand, Sardinha has started digging the strongman’s
history of smuggling, goondagiri and other underworld activities Alemao is allegedly
involved in and even his detention under COFEPOSA, where he was ultimately released on
technical grounds with court intervention.
Though it is a neck-to-neck fight in Congress-dominated areas,
Alemao’s major strength today is the weak candidate the MGP has filed. Khalap was
bent upon fielding a strong candidate to defeat Alemao, as the law minister’s winning
prospects have been thrown to winds by his UF partner in North Goa by fielding a candidate
against him.
But none of the MGP leaders are ready to contest against Alemao,
including Dr Jalmi, the opposition leader, who could not even save his deposit to Alemao
last time. Offers made to MGP leader Shashikala Kakodkar, the former chief minister and
Prakash Velip, the popular tribal MLA, were also turned down by them.
As none other UF constituents like the CPI, CPM or the Janata Dal have
any tough candidate in the South, the MGP has fielded Padmanabh Amonkar, who is seldom
known among the people. Alemao camp claims that they would benefit from this, as the MGP
voters would obviously prefer Alemao to Amonkar.
As he lost the opportunity to become the minister last time due to
Khalap, Alemao has now decided to keep his options open at the centre. Unlike in the past,
he today declines to call himself the UF partner. While maintaining excellent relations
with Deve Gowda camp within the UF, he has also struck a balance by continuing his
relations with the BJP leadership.
Unlike Khalap, Alemao was leading a group of 11 independent MPs in
Delhi, who had reportedly decided to support BJP-led coalition government, when the
Congress had withdrawn support to the Gujral government. Adv Radharao Gracias, the UGDP
spokesman, has already announced that the BJP is not untouchable for them.
Though the BJP candidate Ramakant Angle is contesting against Alemao
today, it is not considered a threat to the UGDP but the MGP. In fact, both Alemao and the
BJP appears to have reached an understanding not to counter each other but weaken the MGP
during the campaign, due to which Alemao could win the seat while the BJP could strengthen
its base further.
Mormugao (South Goa)
Current Candidates
Churchill Alemao (UGDP) - sitting MP
Francisco Sardinha (INC)
Ramakant Angle (BJP)
Padamanabh Amonkar (MGP)
Four independents
1996 Elections
Winner - Churchill Alemao (UGDP) - 1,09,345
Runner Up - Eduardo Faleiro (INC) - 84,051
Margin - 25294
Forefieted deposits - Remaining 19 candidates
(Including MGP, BJP & CPI )
No of Valid Votes - 2,69,832
Polling - 56 %
No of Assembly segments - 21
