It is a sizzling 34 degrees in Goa, and the fever high pitch of the elections is only dialling the heat up. The state goes to polls in 7 days and the political parties are pulling out all stops to ensure victory. While the BJP and the Congress are well entrenched in the state’s political arena, Revolutionary Goan Party is a relative new comer to the high stakes game of the Lok Sabha elections.
The party’s founder president Manoj Parab is contesting the North Goa Lok Sabha seat. For the last two months, Parab has been knocking on doors and windows trying to get across his message: Let’s bring in change to save Goa.
The Revolutionary Goans Party espouses an anti-migrant and pro-Goan cause, a message that/ resonates well in the state/ as it did in Bicholim when the Times of India joined him on the campaign trail.
The party says it has completed door to door campaigning in the entire north Goa constituency, with Parab personally meeting 400 to 500 people every day. In the next phase of the elections, Parab will hold corner meetings, ward meetings and meetings in local markets.
The party has sought permission from the Chief Electoral officer to conduct padyatras and public meetings. Once the permission is received, the party will go organise the public meetings at a suitable location, Parab says.
Parab and his party workers, who he calls Krantikaris, believe that Goa needs a voice in Parliament, because for the last several years the Congress and the BJP have failed to highlight Goa’s concerns particularly the Mhadei river water dispute with Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Parab says that Goans will be landless and homeless in 10-20 years and this is a message that he spreads when he campaigns. This is a key part of his poll campaign and this is one reason why fruit vendors, hawkers, vegetable vendors and small shopkeepers support him.
For the Revolutionary Goans Party, the Lok Sabha elections is a step towards asserting itself in the state’s politics, a way of proving that the surprise victory in the St. Andre constituency in the 2022 assembly elections, was not a flash in the pan.
The party nurtures an ambition to form the government in Goa in the not so distant future and the Lok Sabha elections are just a stepping stone towards that goal. For Parab and his boys, ‘Uzzo’ has become a war cry, a rallying call of sorts to try and reclaim Goa for its original inhabitants. June 4 will tell the story of whether they managed to set the polls on fire.
Camera: Rajtilak NairVideo Editor: Leonardo Carvalho
Also read | Manoj Parab marches door to door with one message: Let me be the voice of change