Mickky Pacheco Will Not Even Get 500 Votes: Goa People’s Forum

Panaji: “Francisco ‘Mickky’ Pacheco will not even get 500 votes if he contests the elections in 2022 either from Benaulim or Nuvem,” a spokesperson for the Goa People’s Forum (GPF) said in Panaji today.

Espy Costa of Borim village near Ponda, who is co-convener of the GPF, while commenting on Pacheco’s joining the Congress party in Delhi stated that the former Tourism Minister has lost his support base. Goa is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago. Goans are enlightened. They will not vote for those who do not work for the people.

“Pacheco is very abusive and arrogant. He does not work for the people. He is flamboyant and only interested in filling his own pockets. He used to lead a very lavish life earlier, but now that he is broke, he wants to contest elections. People like Pacheco see elections as a mode of filling their own pockets and bank accounts,” Nuvem-based Priyanka D’souza and secretary of the Goa People’s Forum said.

D’souza who is part of a group in Goa called the “Friends of Congress” said people are welcome to join the party, but they must not do so with only the hope of getting tickets. Pacheco is trying to contest from either Nuvem or Benaulim. That is his only intention of joining the Congress, she said.

Pacheco is known for party hopping and has a controversial past.

With nearly a dozen criminal cases against him, Pacheco is looking forward to a Congress ticket for contesting the 2022 elections.

He joined the Congress party in New Delhi in the presence of Goa Desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Eariler Pacheco was a minister in the Manohar Parrikar led cabinet in 2012-15, before he resigned after being convicted for assaulting a government servant. He served his sentence at a local jail in Goa.

In 2012 he contested elections on a Goa Vikas Party (GVP) ticket and has as many as 10 criminal cases pending against him.

Pacheco first became an MLA in 2002 after defeating his mentor and former Congress veteran Churchill Alemao.

He has been associated with the United Goans Democratic Party, the NCP and even with the BJP for two days. In 2012, he founded the GVP.

He has already declared that if he does not get a Congress ticket, he will either contest as an independent or on a UGDP ticket.