The Goa Su-Raj Party has taken note of the news reports that the NCP will be given the North Goa seat for the 15th. Lok Sabha Elections to be held on April 23, 2009.
The Goa Su-Raj Party has also taken note that Ms. Nirmala Sawant has been shortlisted for the Ticket and that she will be formally joining the NCP on Guddi Padwa day. In the wake of the rumours that NCP Chief Pawar had Ms. Nirmala Sawant in mind for the North Goa seat after having had talks with her, we quizzed the Goa Chief of the NCP, Dr. Wilfred D'Souza to shed light on the rumour. His response was "I don't Know - No body has told me" There is a reason why Goa Su-Raj is interested, not, in that sense, to know who gets the NCP's ticket, but to know if Nirmala Sawant will get it. And the reason is linked to the visit that the undersigned paid to Nirmala Sawant at her residence at Marcela the day after (Sunday) the mammoth Congress meet at the Lohia Maidan was held with big-shorts of the Congress such as Mani Shankar Iyer, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi in attendance, just before the assembly by-elections were held in 2005. The Goa Su-Raj had noted with keen interest the conspicuous absence of the only lady ex Congress Minister on the dais.... Ms. Nirmala Sawant. The half-hour meet was cordial covering a lot of ground, especially about the strategy of mounting an effective campaign in the Cumbarjua Constituency basically to see the defeat of Pandurang Madkaikar who was slated for the Congress Ticket. As a Congress woman still, it was expected that she will fight Madkaikar tooth and nail but clandestinely, with Goa Su-Raj intending to be in the fray. Would she support our candidate? Would she suggest a suitable candidate? Would she join Goa Su-Raj and contest on its ticket? where many such questions asked. And her forthright answer to our offer was thus: Quote "Mr. Lobo, I appreciate your offer. But I must decline it. IF AT ALL I LEAVE THE CONGRESS PARTY, I SHALL NOT JOIN ANY OTHER POLITICAL PARTY Unquote To that the undersigned has told her this: Quote Ms. Sawant, we respect your decision and we rather anticipated it. Our offer is made out to you by me in the capacity as the President of the Party and does not have the official sanction of the Party's Executive, especially when the Party is bound by the unwritten rule that Goa Su-Raj shall not give entry to any Ex-Mla. I am taking the chance in the understanding that I may be able to convince the Executive to make this one-time exception. I am not sure if I will succeed or not. Therefore, please do not throw this offer out of the window. Rather tie it to your 'SHENDO' [hair knot] so that it reminds you every time you shake your head" Unquote Ms. Sawant had just laughed as a response. It so turned out that Nirmala Sawant resigned from the Congress and subsequently contested the by-elections against Pandurang Madkaikar as an 'Independent' with Goa Su-Raj supporting her through not fielding its candidate. The Goa Su-Raj Executive member was in the fore-front of being one of her main campaign managers. The unfortunate tally was: Madkaikar at 10016 against Nirmala's 9445, a mere shortfall of 571 votes. Therefore, in the wake of the above news reports about Nirmala's impending entry into the NCP, we at Goa Su-Raj believe that Nirmala must tread carefully. 'A WORD' of a serious person, a serious politician, is expected to be the 'WORD OF HONOUR', never to be discarded or forgotten for whatever reason at all. Nirmala has one option though. She can deny that anything like the above has ever transpired and we on our part shall not pursue the matter as this chapter has been closed. But hopefully, she will be able to ignore the ever louder growing knocks at the 'SHENDO' should she accept the NCP's offer. The Goa Su-RajParty wishes her well and would like to see her in Delhi, soon. It is a matter of fact that the Goa Su-Raj Executive has since completely closed the doors to Ex-MLAs with the passing of a BY-LAW banning the entry of Ex-MLAs into the Party. The understanding is that " WE AT GOA SU-RAJ DO NOT NEED TO LEARN FROM EX MLAs HOW TO LOOT GOA. WE ARE QUITE CAPABLE OF DOING THAT OURSELVES" floriano goasuraj
