Win Salcete and Goa is yours. Or if you can’t win Salcete, at least make sure your opponent doesn’t. That’s a maxim that has guided Goa’s political landscape for many decades in the past. For many years the Congress in Goa was able to maintain a commanding presence in Goa’s political landscape largely on account of its dominance in Salcete. And the one time the BJP did manage to gain a simple majority in the state, it did so by ensuring that the Congress was defeated in Salcete.
It’s no surprise then that Salcete is the most crucial taluka in the state. With eight seats, it is by far the single biggest taluka in terms of seats and has the ability to make or break governments.
Traditionally a stronghold of the United Goans Party led by Dr Jack de Sequeira, the taluka was largely instrumental in ensuring a victory for a separate identity for Goa at the time of the Opinion Poll in 1967.
Since then, it has been the United Goans Democratic Party, the Congress as well as other parties like the Save Goa Front, the Goa Vikas Party and many other parties that have managed to ensure that they win one or two of the eight seats that were up for grabs in the constituency.
The only time the BJP did manage to open its account in the state was when Damodar “Damu” Naik managed to wrest the Fatorda seat in 2007 from the Congress as a resulting vote split between many contenders ensured a victory for the BJP. In 2012 Rajan Naik was elected to represent the Cuncolim constituency but that was largely down to the new delimitation which brought in large areas of Quepem taluka within the Cuncolim constituency coupled with an anti-Congress wave that ensured that the party was able to open its account in the state.
The party currently has a presence in the taluka but only because many of the MLAs who were elected on a Congress ticket switched sides to the BJP.
While the BJP has yet to reveal what its plans are for the taluka this time round, despite its overwhelming majority both in the state and the centre, the party will find it difficult to win over the taluka. Rather, the party will have to opt for the strategy that worked well for it in 2012 when rather than fielding candidates on its own it backed select candidates as independents who later came to be known as the altar boys — Avertano Furtado, Benjamin Silva, Caetano Silva whilst simultaneously ensuring that the Congress didn’t win the seat of Nuvem that was won by Mickky Pacheo. The Congress was only able to hold on to Margao and Curtorim.
The big players in Goa’s political ring continue to come from Salcete. Besides leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat who has been representing the Margao constituency for close to three decades now, Goa Forward Party supremo Vijai Sardesai, TMC Goa leader Luizinho Faleiro and NCP’s lone MLA Churchill Alemao hail from the taluka.
The AAP too has managed to gain a foothold in the taluka having won the Benaulim ZP seat and thus opening its account after more than five years in the state.
There are nearly three months to the elections but rest assured, all eyes will be on Salcete from start to end with all the major players having a crucial say in the taluka.
By – Andrea Fernandes
