In Mapusa and Shiroda, two ex-BJP men get Congress tickets

PANAJI: To defeat BJP and improve its strength in the 40-member state assembly, Congress on Friday decided to go with former BJP men for the Mapusa and Shiroda byelections.
Congress will field former industries minister and former Shiroda MLA Mahadev Naik in Shiroda constituency while five-time councillor and former BJP state executive member Sudhir Khandolkar has been picked for Mapusa.Both Khandolkar and Naik appeared confident of emerging victorious in the April 23 bypolls.

“I have completed a lot of house-to-house campaigning as the party had given me the signal to start. People have told me to go to Congress. I joined Congress with 1,500 workers with just one day’s notice, so I am completely sure of winning,” Naik said. Former Congress state president Subhash Shirodkar is BJP’s Shiroda candidate. In the 2012 assembly elections, Naik defeated Shirodkar, however in the 2017 election the tide turned in Shirodkar’s favour against Naik.
All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik cleared the names of both candidates in a statement released in New Delhi.
“Mapxekars told me to go ahead and, with that confidence, I have joined Congress, which has given me the ticket. I know that some Congressmen have sacrificed their ticket for me. The people of Mapusa have only one issue, no development has taken place in Mapusa,” Khandolkar, who will take on BJP’s Joshua D’Souza, said.
Though the Election Commission of India has announced the byelections for all three constituencies, the opposition party is yet to announce its candidate for the Mandrem assembly seat. Congress seems to be in a dilemma as former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap, Sachin Parab and Babi Bagkar are all vying for the ticket. There were heated discussions at the Congress headquarters over indications that Khalap was on the verge of being picked.
Bypolls in Shiroda and Mandrem were necessitated after their sitting Congress MLAs resigned and joined the BJP. The Mapusa seat fell vacant following the death of its BJP MLA Francis D’Souza.