Father vs son contest on the cards in verdant Poriem in ensuing Goa assembly polls

Octogenarian Congress stalwart and Goa’s longest serving chief minister Pratapsingh Rane could face-off against his son, BJP Minister Vishwajit Rane

@the_news_21

Pune:

With the Congress’ renominating former Goa chief minister and 11-time MLA Pratapsingh Rane as the party’s candidate for the Poriem assembly constituency in North Goa, stage is set for ‘father versus son’ contest ahead of the upcoming Goa assembly election. 

The octogenarian Rane, who has been the longest serving chief minister of Goa, held the post six times for different periods between 1980 and 2007. He has been challenged by his son, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vishwajit Rane, who is Goa’s Health Minister as well as the MLA from neighbouring Valpoi constituency, less than 20 km from Poriem. 

“I am a sitting member (Poriem seat) and have been working for the people all these years…A lot more needs to be done, more jobs need to be generated, industry has become stagnant, mining is closed and unemployment has risen sharply during the BJP government’s tenure,” said the 82-year-old Pratapsingh Rane. 

Earlier, when his name did not figure in the Congress’ first list of eight candidates for the election, speculation was rife that the elder Rane was unwilling to contest this time around. This was put to rest by the Congress central election committee’s announcement of his candidature for the Poriem seat on Wednesday evening. 

The Congress’ official decision to field the stalwart Rane came a day after his son, Vishwajit Rane had gruffly exhorted his father to “gracefully retire” from the political arena while claiming that he had lost connect with the younger voters. 

“I have been managing the Poriem constituency for the last 20 years…he (Pratapsingh Rane) is my father and my idol. But when he talks about promoting the younger generation in the Congress, 82 is not an age to promote oneself…he should retire gracefully,” said Vishwajit Rane.

Junior Rane expressed confidence of winning the Poriem seat by a margin of at least 10,000 votes – a significant margin given the small electorate sizes of Goa’s assembly seats. 

When questioned whether it would be a son versus father battle, the junior Rane tersely replied: “It will be a fight between who is more competent and who is less so.” He added that his father may have taken the decision to contest owing to pressures from the Central Congress leadership and the Goa Congress.  

Poriem and Valpoi form part of the verdant Sattari sub-district, which has been the virtual fiefdom of the prominent Rane clan and where Pratapsingh Rane still retains an overwhelming influence today, having won every Assembly election since 1972.  

Vishwajit Rane was initially with the Congress, the younger Rane who has represented Valpoi assembly seat since 2007 – switched sides to join the BJP after the 2017 Assembly election. The BJP since then has steadily exerted its influence under Vishwajit’s leadership in Valpoi and Poriem.  

While the Congress has been steadily losing ground in Goa, the party nearly imploded in 2019 when 10 of its 15 MLAs joined the BJP in 2019. 

This process is continuing ahead of the 2022 Assembly election, with Aleixo Lourenco, the party’s Curtorim MLA and the working president of the Goa Congress, defecting to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and leaving the Congress with just two MLAs currently – the elder Rane and Digambar Kamat, both former chief ministers.  

The BJP had been making strenuous efforts to woo the senior Rane from the Congress, with the party’s Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis visiting his residence in September this year.