BJP shuffled four candidates to control Canacona for 2 decades

CANACONA
The State’s southernmost taluka of Canacona has been a boon for the BJP. After all, not often can the BJP claim to have had four different party men serving as MLAs over different terms for two decades.

The BJP has effectively shuffled four candidates to control Canacona for 20 years, even to the extent of denying the party ticket to the sitting MLA. However, sitting Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes is confident the BJP will break this trend of denying sitting MLA party ticket for the February 14 polls.

According to local diehard BJP followers, the party has had this unusual tendency of rotating party tickets among the many leaders in Canacona taluka.

CANACONA

“In 1999, BJP candidate Vijay Poi Khot lost to then Congress candidate Sanjay Bandekar in Canacona constituency by a slim margin of 171 votes. Bandekar, however, joined a few others and helped Manohar Parrikar to form the government,” recalled Molu Naikgaunkar, a former councillor of Canacona Municipal Council.

“However, in the next election, BJP denied Bandekar the party ticket and Bandekar switched back to the Congress. It had little effect as the BJP candidate, Vijay Poi Khot defeated Bandekar in the next two assembly elections in Canacona constituency by 2,883 in 2002 and 709 votes in 2007,” said Naikgaunkar.

“Interestingly, Poi Khot campaigned vigorously in the neighbouring erstwhile Poinguinim constituency to enable BJP candidate Ramesh Tawadkar win two assembly elections, including in a bye-election in 2005.”

POINGUINIM

The situation was no different for the BJP in the erstwhile Poinguinim constituency from 2002 to 2007, when the party won in three of four elections, including two bye-polls.

Fernandes won Poinguinim constituency as independent, defeating MGP’s Govind Acharya and Congress leader Vassu Paik Gaonkar in 1999, and went on to win as Congress candidate in 2002 by defeating BJP’s Tawadkar.

Fernandes won on the BJP ticket at the 2004 by-election defeating Govind Acharya, but lost on the Congress ticket lost to BJP’s Tawadkar at the 2005 by-election. In 2007, Tawadkar won on the BJP ticket defeating Fernandes of the Congress.

UNIFIED CANACONA

When Poinguinim constituency was merged and the 2012 assembly elections were held for the delimited Canacona constituency, the BJP in a surprise decision denied the party ticket to Vijay Poi Khot in favour of Tawadkar.

Undeterred, Poi Khot campaigned and helped Tawadkar to comfortably win the Canacona constituency for BJP, comfortably defeating the Congress candidate, Isidore Fernandes.

However, the BJP denied the party ticket to Tawadkar, despite being a minister in the Parrikar cabinet, in the 2017 assembly polls and handed it to Poi Khot.

Upset on being denied the ticket, Tawadkar contested as a rebel independent candidate and split BJP votes, causing the BJP candidate Poi Khot to lose to then Congress candidate, Isidore Fernandes.

The BJP, however, came back to power in Canacona constituency, when Fernandes and a group of Congress MLAs switched over to the BJP, to enable the party successfully complete a full term in the government.

With the February 14 assembly elections, questions are being raised on whether the BJP will spring a twist yet again and deny the party ticket to Fernandes in favour of the other ticket aspirant, Tawadkar, or will it give the ticket to Fernandes and get Tawadkar to work for him like how Poi Khot had worked for Tawadkar success in 2012.

There are many who argue in favour of Fernandes, given that he had switched over to the BJP and helped the government remain in power for the entire term, while Tawadkar was a rebel candidate and had split the BJP votes in the 2017 polls.

While both Fernandes and Tawadkar have been holding corner meetings, Fernandes has received the support of the Canacona BJP blocks and other blocks like the Mahila Block and the Youth Block, bolstering his claim to the party ticket.

Poi Khot has, however, withdrawn as a BJP ticket aspirant, but has been campaigning with supports on his mission of ‘Ekla Chalo’ to contest as independent candidate.