Congress’s CM contender, Digambar Kamat set to win seventh term from Margao

The Congress has not declared a chief ministerial candidate in the state but AICC Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had earlier said, “Everyone knows who will be the chief minister if the Congress forms the government.” Senior Congress leaders and former chief ministers Luizinho Faleiro and Ravi Naik quit the Congress ahead of the February 14 polls to join the TMC and the BJP respectively. The Congress’s seniormost legislator and six-time former CM Pratapsingh Rane backed out of this election leaving the party with only Kamat from its senior ranks. Kamat was the Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly.

In the BJP leaders’ speeches during election campaign this time, barbs were fired at Kamat and not any other Congress leader – a sign of his influence in the party.

Kamat has been elected from his fortress of Margao six times but he has oscillated between the Congress and the BJP. His journey began in the Congress but he joined the BJP in 1994 and won two elections from the party. In 2005, he joined the Congress once again. In 2007, as opinion was divided on choosing a chief minister between senior leaders Ravi Naik and Pratapsingh Rane, the party named Kamat CM as a ‘compromise’. Kamat had joined the Congress two years before he was made CM and was reportedly instrumental in bringing down the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP government in the state in 2005.

Before becoming the CM in June, 2007, Kamat served as the state’s minister for power, urban development, mines and art and culture. Before he first became an MLA in 1995, he also served as a councillor of the Margao Municipal Council from 1985 to 1990.

Kamat, who has interests in real estate has described himself as an ‘agriculturist’ in his election affidavit and declared moveable assets worth Rs 6.87 crore in his election affidavit and immovable assets valued at Rs 3.21 crore. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Mumbai University.

Kamat’s chief ministership was, however, chequered. He was accused in a case of bribery for offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Kamat and then PWD minister Churchill Alemao were booked for charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy. Alemao was PWD minister of the state from 2007 to 2012 when officials of the US-based company Louis Berger allegedly paid bribes to win a consultancy bid for water augmentation and a sewerage pipeline project in Goa under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The case under the PMLA is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and a court has framed charges against both Kamat and Alemao. Apart from this Kamat has disclosed in his affidavit three other offences registered against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, however, charges have not been framed in those offences.

While the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government was often attacked for its inability to restart mining in Goa, the BJP has maintained that it was during Kamat’s tenure as CM that the “sin” of illegal mining was committed as a result of which the sector came to a halt for almost ten years.

Kamat, who also served as the mining minister of the state for ten years, was indicted by a judicial commission for reportedly allowing illegal mining in the state as a result of which a few individuals amassed wealth at the cost of the environment.