The RG was later registered as a party and assigned the football symbol. It contested 38 seats, defeated the BJP in St Andre by 76 votes, and is now set to send its first MLA to the Goa Assembly. MONTHS AHEAD of elections, the Revolutionary Goans (RG), a political outfit led by Tukaram alias Manoj Parad, waited to be registered as a political party. But long before that, youths clad in black walked the streets of Goa, accosted “migrants” engaged in “illegal activities”, and posted vidoes on social media in which its members took them to task.
The RG was later registered as a party and assigned the football symbol. It contested 38 seats, defeated the BJP in St Andre by 76 votes, and is now set to send its first MLA to the Goa Assembly.
A party of young Goans, aged between 25 and 35 years, mostly from the state’s Bahujan Samaj, the RG sprang a surprise, not just because it won a seat, but also because it garnered over 3,000 votes in some other constituencies too. Its candidates cut into the votes of not just the BJP, but also the Congress and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
Playing the insider-outsider card, the party had advocated a Bill for persons of Goan origin in the run-up to the polls. The party now promises to be the voice of Goa’s youth in the Assembly.
“We have won this seat with no money power, unlike other parties. This is a very good beginning for us,” said the party’s candidate from Saligaon, Rohan Kalangutkar.
Outside the counting centre in Panaji’s Altinho on Sunday, young men carried Viresh Borkar, the party’s winning candidate from St Andre, waved party flags bearing the football, and shouted “Uzzo” — their slogan that means “fire”. On Thursday, the party held a victory lap for Borkar.
Among the winners on Thursday were three Independent candidates, who pledged support to the BJP. These included three-time Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who switched from the Congress to TMC ahead of the elections but contested as an Independent after “backlash” from his voters.
In Bicholim constituency, Independent Chandrakant Shetye emerged victorious with the MGP finishing second. The third Independent who won was Antonio Dias from Cortalim, also a seat that the BJP won in 2017.
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