'My heart is still with Congress though contesting as Independent'

Panaji, May 29 (UNI) Viswajit Rane, son of Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, who is contesting as an Independent candidate from North Goa's backward Valpoi constituency after being denied a Congress ticket, said his ''heart is still with the party.'' Denied the Congress ticket under the principle of ''one ticket for one family'', Viswajit (37) resigned from the post of the GPCC general secretary as also the primary membership of the party at the eleventh hour before filing his nomination papers.

Interestingly, the official Congress nominee Laxman, a fruit picker, also withdrew his nomination also at the eleventh hour.

Contesting his first-ever elections, Viswjit, who holds a postgraduate degree in marketing from London and is a specialist in manufacture of agroproducts, further said he had also started campaigning for all the Congress candidates in neighbouring constituencies.

The Congress had so far not come out with any official statement extending support to any of the other two candidates in Valpoi constituency as a matter of ''strategy,'' while it has announced unqualified support to Independent candidate Somnath Zuarkar contesting against former minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, who quit the Congress under similar circumstances when his wife Jennifer was denied the ticket.

Popularly known as ''Baba'', Viswajit, in a free wheeling interview to UNI at his father's sprawling farmhouse at Sanquelim, 50 km from here, claimed his father and he had been responsible for many developmental works in the area.

The elder Rane is contesting from abutting Poriem constituency, where his wife Vijayadevi Rane was helping him in campaigning.

''I would go back to Congress as I am basically a Congress worker and have been engaged in strengthening the party in different constituencies around,'' Viswajit said, adding that the party's strength was in its organisation and the leaders should stop their in-fighting and voicing their views in the public for the sake of the organisation.

Asked why Muslims were denied tickets this time, he said this could have been for the reason that the party might have not found any ''winnable candidate'' from the community. ''So might have the case be with women,'' he added.

He claimed that providing ''pucca'' jobs to the youth was the ''USP'' of the Congress government, unlike the BJP which floated the Labour Contract Society for offering temporary jobs.

Facing a three-cornered contest in Valpoi, Viswajit made light of his rivals -- BJP's Goankar Puti and MGP's Rohitdas Gaonkar.

He had been meeting the voters house to house besides addressing them in corner meetings.''We till them what we did. They all know it well,'' he said.

Referring to ''Save Goa Front(SGF)'' chief Churchill Alemao, he termed him a ''cook on the ships'' and an ''uneducted fellow,'' who did not know what is meant by an SEZ.'' ''It can't be a real estate business. He opposed the Konkan Railway Project for Goa and is opposing every developmental work.

He is unfit to be in national politics either in Goa or outside,'' Vishwajit said.

A ''disillusioned and disgruntled'' Alemao had quit the Congress and his Lok Sabha seat, setting up the regional outfit for the June 2 hustings.

Also lashing at former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, he said the constituencies of Bicholim, Mayemm, Pale, Valpoi and Poriem did not witness any progress under the BJP regime.

''My father was responsible for completition of Salelim and Anjune irrigation dams in the region, not the BJP,'' he asserted, adding that they ''knew the people and their problems besides their requirement.'' ''The BJP's scheme of providing doles of Rs 2000 to each of the unemployed is an eyewash,'' he said.

He said he had mobilised a youth force under the name of ''Sattari Yuva Morcha'' and started working in the five constituencies for bettering the lot of the public, particularly in providing them with basic amenities like water, electricity and quality roads.

''We are trying to provide them with a modern marketing complexes and bus stands besides upgraded health centres and opening industrial complexes with clean and green mechanism. Women were also in the forefront in Satteri taluk,'' he said.

Exuding confidence that the Congress would get a clear majority in the state, he declined to comment on his one-time friend and former controversial minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate who had also quit the Congress at the eleventh hour and filed his candidature as UGDP member.

This had grievously inconvenienced the Congress which then reduced to having its candidates only in 32 constituencies instead of 34 and was forced to ''co-opt'' Independent candidate Somnath Zuarkar, who was earlier minister in Congress regime, in Taleigao.

A horde of people, including aged men and women, were seen flocking to the Rane farm house, seeking solutions to their problems even as the police stepped up security cover in and around the area.

Meanwhile,the BJP had complained to the Election Commission that Viswajit had been distributing wrist watches to the electorate with his photo and election symbol on it.

The party had even presented one such watch to the Chief Electoral Officer.

It was only a few days ago that an EC team raided Viswajit's agro-farm on information that he was distributing some sops and sewing machines to the voters. However, the authorities returned empty-handed.

Valpoi had been won by the BJP in 2002, with the party's Narahari Haldankar Tukaram triumphing over the sitting MLA, Congress' Desari Venkatesh Atmaram. Tukaram, who later was Deputy Speaker, secured 6,137 votes as against 5,785 of Atmaram.

MGP's Katker Suresh Harischandra was third with 466 votes, in the triangular contest.

In the 1999 elections, Venkatesh won the seat, securing 4,177 votes, and defeating his nearest BJP rival Narahari, who got 3,323 votes in the six-cornered contest.

UNI