Sardinha-Mesquita to contest LS bye-polls
PTI,
Panaji
12 October 2007
Ruling Congress and opposition
BJP will be locked in straight fight in the October 30 South Goa Lok Sabha bypoll
as Congress candidate Fransisco Sardinha and Wilfred Mesquita of the saffron party
filed their nominations on the last day today.
Two independents Jawahar
Dias and Hamza Isak Khan are also in the fray.
Sardinha, former Chief Minister,
had suffered defeat in the recent Goa assembly poll while Mesquita is a former
minister.
South Goa constituency has been a Congress bastion. In 2004, Congress
candidate Churchill Alemao had defeated BJP's Ramakant Angle.
Angle later
joined Congress while Alemao left Congress in May this year to float his regional
outfit Save Goa Front (SGF) just before the assembly polls.
Interestingly
Mesquita was one of the SGF founder members who actively campaigned for the party
and Alemao during recent assembly elections.
His relations with Alemao turned
bitter last month when Alemao began hobnobbing with Congress to get Lok Sabha
ticket for his daughter Valenka.
Mesquita joined BJP yesterday and within
a few hours was declared the party's candidate for the bypolls.
BJP Goa
chief Shripad Naik said Mesquita has his own vote base in South Goa which will
be added to party's vote base to ensure victory
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