Narendra Sawaikar is the sure-shot winner in South Goa for Lok Sabha polls, predicts Shreha Dhargalkar

PANAJI: Prominent social worker and women’s rights activist Shreha Dhargalkar has predicted that former MP and NRI commissioner Narendra Sawaikar is the sure-shot winner for the Lok Sabha polls from South Goa. According to Shreha, Sawaikar is the people’s choice and will get a 60,000 to 70,000 lead over his nearest rival.

As reported earlier, with senior BJP leaders like Ramesh Tawadkar and Digambar Kamat making their position clear with regard to the party candidature for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in April-May, the BJP leadership in Delhi has zeroed in on former MP Narendra Sawaikar, whose name will be announced as the party candidate once the poll schedule is declared by the Election Commission.

According to Shreha, Sawaikar is the clear shot winner and as winnability is the main criteria for the BJP in South Goa, only Sawaikar should be given the ticket as any other candidate may not be able to make it to the finishing line.

The BJP initially toyed with the idea of a Catholic candidate – like Nilesh Cabral or someone else and then considered Margao MLA (and former CM) Digambar Kamath who was the front runner for almost a week. However, Kamath said he was not too keen for personal as well as health reasons and sources close to the Margao strongman told us that he was not keen on a role in Delhi or as the MP and would prefer either a Cabinet berth in the State Ministry or some other designation like the chairmanship of a corporation.

Sawaikar is very popular among BJP karyakartas and due to his association with local farmers through the Goa Bagayatdar Society Limited as well as being the NRI Commissioner he has a strong Catholic voter base in Salcete.

Earlier BJP leaders including Damu Naik, Ramesh Tawadkar, Chandrakant Kavlekar and Digambar Kamat names were in the list along with Sawaikar and Cabral.