Faleiro all set to win RS seat

PANAJI, JULY 25: Former external affairs minister Eduardo Faleiro is all set to return to the Parliament, this time as member of the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Goa, elections for which are due on Monday. Faleiro, who is contesting on the Congress ticket, is expected to sail through, as the party enjoys 24 votes in the forty-member unicameral legislature of the State.The Congress candidate is opposed by Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC) nominee Bhavanishankar Gadnis, a lawyer from New Delhi, but of Goan origin. Gadnis, however, has the backing of the ten-member BJP, in addition to two legislators of the GRC. Though two members of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Prakash Velip and Balkrishna Dhavlikar, had seconded the nomination of Gadnis, the party is yet to take a final decision on which way its four MLAs will vote.

Meanwhile, the State Congress leadership, headed by CM Luizinho Faleiro, is actively wooing the MGP legislators, led by former union law minister Ramakant Khalap. Should the MGP votes swing theCongress way, it would amount to a consolidation of all the non-BJP parties in the State.