Goa elections: Ex-CM Pratapsingh Rane confirms poll plunge, pitted against daughter-in-law

In an important development on Friday, Congress veteran Pratapsingh Rane confirmed that he will contest the upcoming Goa elections from the Poriem seat. This comes amid speculation that he might not fight the polls after his son and BJP Minister Vishwajit Rane asked him to "retire gracefully". Winning every successive election from 1972, Pratapsingh Rane became Congress' first Chief Minister in Goa in 1980 and served in the top post five more times thereafter.

Thus, he will take on his daughter-in-law Divya who was given a ticket by BJP from the same constituency. Earlier on Thursday, BJP's Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis claimed that the 11-time Congress legislator had agreed to support Divya Rane's candidature. He asserted, "Pratapsingh Rane was a Congress MLA for 50 years. We had never won that seat. We requested him and he left the seat for us".

While conceding that Fadnavis did meet him a while ago, Pratapsingh Rane insisted that politics wasn't discussed in this meeting. Apart from Divya Rane, BJP also fielded her husband Vishwajit from the Valpoi constituency. After winning the 2017 polls on a Congress ticket, the latter immediately jumped ship to BJP and was re-elected from the Valpoi seat. 

Political scenario in Goa

In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, BJP suffered a big blow in the absence of its stalwart leader Manohar Parrikar as it could win only 13 seats in contrast to Congress whose candidates won in 17 constituencies. However, BJP staked claim to form the government with the support of 3 MGP MLAs, 3 GFP MLAs, two Independents and an NCP MLA under the leadership of Parrikar who resigned as the Defence Minister. But, there was a political vacuum in the state after Parrikar's demise in 2017 and Pramod Sawant succeeded him as the CM. 

Meanwhile, BJP consolidated its position after 10 Congress MLAs including Chandrakant Kavlekar, Atanasio Monseratte, Jeniffer Monseratte, Francis Silveira, Philip Nery Rodrigues, Cleaofacio Dias, Wilfred Dsa, Nilkant Halarnkar and Isidor Fernandes joined the saffron party on July 10, 2019. For the upcoming Assembly election, both AAP and TMC are seeking to make inroads in the state in the wake of a weakened Congress state unit. Goa will go to the polls on February 14 whereas the counting of votes shall take place on March 10.