------------------------------------------------------- CONVENTION OF THE GOAN DIASPORA FROM GOA INTO THE WORLD Lisbon, Portugal June 15-17, 2007 Details at: http://www.goacom.org/casa-de-goa/noticias.html -------------------------------------------------------
‘ELECTED UNOPPOSED’ By Valmiki Faleiro Elections are expensive. That home truth hit Luizinho Faleiro after his first two elections. Navelim was, no doubt, a former UGP (turned Congress) bastion. Election expenses were a song as compared to other fiercely fought constituencies like nearby Margao. The problem was Luizinho, a former Zuari Agro Chemicals employee, was perennially broke. He didn’t have money even to replace a broken stand of his ramshackle ‘Crusader’ motorcycle. As his third election approached – eventually held November 22, 1989 – a small circle of friends, Luizinho’s think tank, wondered how to mobilize funds for the campaign. I happened to be part of that group. The prospects were truly formidable. In the new delimitation, Navelim constituency had been reorganized. Though it appeared a contiguous unit on paper, the ground reality was that extensive new areas, being the four villages of Varca, Orlim, Carmona and Cavelossim, which since 1963 were part of Benaulim, had been added to Navelim. And all these areas, where Luizinho would have to work from scratch, were situated on the other side of River Sal! “Why undergo the torment of an election campaign?” Radharao Gracias, I think, suggested, rather preposterously, “let’s try and get him elected unopposed!” Only at Panchayat ward level, where the electorate seldom crossed the 1,000-voter mark those days, a stray candidate got elected unopposed. But, at the State Assembly level? Even if fantastic, one wished, in the circumstances of Luizinho’s financial status (he was not yet a minister then), it could somehow come through. The going had been smooth for Luizinho in the previous two elections. In the maiden, of January 3, 1980, Babu Naik, then South Goa’s undisputed Congress leader, paid for Luizinho’s election deposit. The party provided bulk of the campaign materials and funds, which were minimal, considering the huge Congress wave all over Goa following the April 23, 1979 disgrace in the Assembly by the then ruling MGP. In a practically straight fight, Luizinho easily defeated MGP’s Benedito (“Bishut”) Temudo by a margin of some 5,400 votes. His December 27, 1984 election was, however, a different ball game. Having walked out of the Congress, Luizinho was a ‘Goa Congress’ candidate. He was pitted against the same Bishut, this time the Congress candidate. To his credit, Luizinho did admirably, defeated Bishut by about 5,600 votes, and was the only successful man of the Goa Congress throughout Goa. As nominations for the Nov-89 polls opened, we kept our closely guarded secret – and a hawk’s eye on those filing their papers from Navelim. Even if farfetched, the possibility of an unopposed election was not discarded. At close of nominations, we set to work in all earnest. There was this boy from Carmona. He worked at Fabril Gasosa. His boss, Erasmo Sequeira, had fielded him as the Janata candidate. We easily won him over. The poor chap lost his job. There was Vasquito Martins from Varca. We spent several nights over him. It was then Margao Dy SP, Alex Rasquinha, who finally won Vasquito over. Later, when Luizinho was a powerful minister in the Rane cabinet, he had Rasquinha shunted to a limbo post at Police HQ! The toughest to crack was Luizinho’s own brother-in-law, “Babush” Xavier. He was the only man left … a paper-thin difference between a historic, first-in-Goa’s-history triumph and the mortification of launching an election campaign. Personal animosities were at play. Babush was surprisingly stubborn. Our man Friday, Churchill Alemao, also Luizinho’s “kumpar,” was friends with Babush. We put him on the job. It was, thanks to Churchill’s days-long resolute convincing, that earned Luizinho that place in history. And, perhaps, the cheapest Goa Assembly election victory, ever! Like Rasquinha, we also know how Luizinho repaid Churchill… ===================================================================== The above article appeared in the May 21, 2007 edition of the Gomantak Times, Goa ------------------------------------------------------- Goanet recommends, and is proud to be associated with, 'Domnic's Goa' - A nostalgic romp through a bygone era. This book is the perfect gift for any Goan, or anyone wanting to understand Goa. Distributed locally by Broadway, near Caculo Island, Panjim & internationally by OtherIndiaBookStore.Com. For trade enquiries contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------
