Goa: Congress announces 8 candidates even as poll dates yet to be announced

Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Goa Assembly, Digambar Kamat, will contest from Margao, while Congress' working president Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco will contest from Curtorim for the third time.

Vice-President Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Sankalp Amonkar (L) and former Goa CM Digambar Kamat (File Photo/Twitter)

The Congress party on Thursday released its first list of eight candidates for the upcoming Legislative Assembly polls in Goa, the dates of which are yet to be announced. Of the eight names declared by Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik, two are from constituencies in North Goa and six are from the South.

Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Goa Assembly, Digambar Kamat, will contest from Margao, the seat he has been winning since 1994. The party’s working president Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco will contest from Curtorim for the third time. Vice President of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Sankalp Amonkar, who lost the Mormugao seat to BJP’s Milind Naik by 140 votes in 2017, has been named as the Congress candidate from the same seat for the upcoming polls.

List of candidates announced by Congress

On Wednesday, Naik resigned as the Urban Development and Social Welfare Minister after Amonkar filed a complaint against him in the women’s police station in Panaji, accusing him of sexually exploiting a woman and submitting audio, video and WhatsApp chats as evidence.

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“The Congress has created history by declaring its candidates even before election dates are announced. Even if the election is two months away, we have announced the names respecting people’s wishes. The list has been announced by the Central Election Committee,” said GPCC President Girish Chodankar.

The other candidates named by the Congress are Sudhir Kandolkar from Mapusa, former Panaji mayor Tony Rodrigues from Taleigaon and Rajesh Vernekar from Ponda. Yuri Alemao, son of former minister Joaquim Alemao, who returned to the Congress last year after quitting the Goa Forward Party, is the candidate from Cuncolim in South Goa and Altone D’Costa from Quepem.

The Congress that saw ten of its MLA defect to the BJP in 2019, had left it to its block committees in the state’s 40 assembly constituencies to recommend candidates to the state leadership. Based on this, Congress had said it would choose its candidates. The party had made it clear that its doors were shut for defectors and asked the block committees to choose candidates from among themselves.

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