Young voters key as two old warhorses limber up in North

As North Goa prepares for the BJPCongress battle, a lingering question is if the old Congress warhorse Ramakant Khalap, who has been a six-term Mandrem MLA, can breach the BJP bastion represented by Shripad Naik, who is seeking his sixth term as MP.
BJP is striving to secure the North Goa parliamentary seat to create electoral history. To date, no MP from Goa has been able to win a seat for six consecutive terms.
If Naik, a Bhandari Samaj leader fondly known as ‘Bhau’, wins for the sixth time, he will break the record held by him and Eduardo Faleiro of winning five times in a row.Faleiro had won the South Goa seat in the fiveterm streak for Congress.
Khalap is a seasoned politician who has won assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections but a disadvantage is that he has not contested a parliamentary poll for the past 25 years. Allegations and counter-allegations flew briskly during this campaign with chief minister Pramod Sawant accusing Khalap of playing a role in the bank ruptcy of Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank.
For his part, Khalap alleged that BJP is responsible for the present condition of the bank.
“People have warmly wel comed Khalap during campaigning, but the outreach should have been stronger. There was no punch,” a political observer said. “That may have been because of the lack of a strong organisational setup in Congress.”
During canvassing, Khalap’s line was that Naik has failed to raise the issues of the state in Parliament. Naik pointed to the developmental works undertaken by him during his tenure as MP.
While Congress has a sizable vote share in Tiswadi and Bardez talukas, BJP has a strong presence in Sattari, Bicholim, and Pernem. “This time, voters are silent. But results will show which taluka stood with whom,” another political observer said. “One cannot ignore the fact that RGP too has strong support from young people.”
Besides Naik and Khalap, other candidates in the fray for the North Goa seat are RGP’s Manoj Parab, BSP’s Milan Vaingankar, Akhil Bhartiya Parivar Party’s Sakharam Naik, and independents Thomas Augustine Fernandes, Vishal Naik, and Sakeel Jamal Shaikh.
BJP held a massive meeting in Mapusa last Friday which was addressed by Union home minister Amit Shah. There has been no significant rally of any opposition party in the North.
When BJP members approached the minority community asking for votes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several tough questions were posed by the constituents.
“The advantage for BJP is that they have been able to reach out to the maximum number of voters in the North through their MLAs and karyakartas. That has not been the case with other parties,” a political pundit said. “But nobody can predict how voters will exercise their franchise on Tuesday.”
RGP has gone all out to persuade people to vote for it to save the identity of Goa. RGP says the national parties have not done enough to protect Goan culture. The main RGP pitch was that only a regional party can safeguard Goa and its land.
“There are some people who criticised BJP for continuing with Naik as its candidate. Some say the Congress candidate is the right choice,” a political observer said. “In the end, young people and silent voters will decide the outcome of the .”
North Goa is divided into five talukas and every taluka has a different equation in electoral politics. BJP has a strong organisation in the North, which was visible throughout its campaign. Congress has not won the North Goa Lok Sabha seat for two-and-a-half decades and is hobbled by its organisational weakness.
BJP has 16 MLAs in North Goa and is supported by two MGP MLAs and an independent. Congress is left with only one MLA of the 20 in North Goa. RGP has one MLA.
The major issues that electors flagged in North Goa were the rise in unemployment and the lack of development. Congress is hoping to bank on any negative sentiment directed at BJP and its candidate. Khalap and Naik last squared off for a poll battle in 1999, 25 years ago.