Goa: The battle for Siolim is about BJP who tried to get the bastion and his congress tried to create history by winning a chair for the first time.
Initially dominated by MGP, and then BJP, the constituency was secured by Mla’s Goa Mla Vinod Palienencar for the first time in 2017 because of the anti-farmers on the legislators four times and former Minister of Mandrekar.
Siolim has 13 candidates in Fray, the highest in Goa, and remains a constituency of dominating Hinduism, mostly consisting of Bahujan Samaj.
“Although the Hindu candidate owned by Bahujan Samaj always represents Siolim, this time the Congress has succeeded in creating a buzz through a minority candidate,” said a local resident.
Buzz for Congress in this constituency has been created with a nomination for Delilah Lobo, Parpan and wife of the former Port minister of Michael Lobo.
Lobo was very pitching for BJP’s nomination for his wife and resigned after he was rejected by a ticket.
He then joined the Congress and the party confirmed two tickets for couples in Calangute and neighboring Siolim.
BJP has lowered Mandrekar again to regain his handle, while Pollisan fought as independent after he was rejected by the ticket by the GFP when the party entered into the pre-poll alliance with Congress.
Constituents tend to see the battle between Mandrekar and Lobo.
“We will choose to consider factors such as candidate capabilities to develop constituencies, in addition to helping constituents with employment opportunities,” Vagator residents said.
The constituency was first represented by MGP from 1963-1999, except from 1980-1984 when the Chandrakan Chodankar independent candidate won the chair.
BJP then dominated the chair with mandrekar selected for four conditions until 2017.
Because the constituency was ready to be contested, Lobo decided to involve his wife from Siolim.
He was the first person to start his campaign independently, without the party symbol, even before the election was announced.
Seeing the political arithmetic in Siolim, Lobo has campaigned hard, urging voters to provide opportunities to represent them and prove what they can do.
BJP did not want to be arrested and quickly finished Mandrekar as a candidate with party workers told to be strong back by the former minister.
The former driven by tourism, the Siolim constituency consists of six Panchayats – Verla-Canca, Assagao, Anjuna, Siolim-Marna, Sodiem and Oxel.
Although often visited by tourists, domestic and international, constituencies do not have basic facilities including lack of water supply.
The problem was very severe so that in November last year, local residents rose to the streets for defending protests.
Popular tourist hotspots such as Anjuna and Vagator do not have basic facilities provided on the beach such as toilets and dressing rooms.
Significantly, nearly 1200 taxi owners are part of the constituency and they can play a major role in this election.
They have played jars with the state government over the installation of taxi meters and application-based aggregators.
“During the last election, we were divided between BJP and Palienestar,” said the local taxi owner.
“BJP hasn’t solved our problems that have been waiting for a long time.
We will collectively make decisions about what we should choose.”