Margao: The Congress leadership finds itself in a predicament how to go about the candidate selection – whether to snatch the ticket from the winning horse, sitting MP Francisco Sardinha, who has held the fort for the party on four previous occasions or give the ticket to Captain Viriato Fernandes to lead the battle for South Goa on behalf of the party. In fact, the party leadership is presently on the job to find out the pros and cons of nominating the sitting MP or his challenger for South Goa in the coming polls.
A senior party leader conceded that Sardinha has not lost a single Lok Sabha election since he first made his entry into Parliament from South Goa in the mid-90s. Since then, the veteran Congress leader has won the seat whenever the party had nominated him in South Goa. “The party had literally snatched the ticket from Sardinha in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and lost the seat badly. And, when Sardinha was again nominated for the seat in 2019, the party won the seat”, the leader pointed out. He, however, hastened to add that age is not on the side of the veteran MP, but the INDIA alliance partners as well.
Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai's statement
The Congress leader was apparently referring to the statement made by party pre-poll Assembly alliance partner Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai that the regional party will not support Sardinha in the coming polls. “The recent statement made by Aam Admi Party Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas demanding that the Congress nominate a young and dynamic candidate, indicates that alliance partners are not in favour of Sardinha’s candidature”, the leader said.
On the other hand, the Congress leadership is evaluating the candidature of Captain Viriato Fernandes and whether his candidature will manage to make a dent in a short time in the hinterland talukas of Sanguem Ponda, Quepem considered the strongholds of the Congress party.
