Former AAP Goa convener is Congress candidate for Panaji

PANAJI: The Congress on Thursday declared its sixth and final list of candidates for the upcoming Goa assembly elections with former bureaucrat and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state convener Elvis Gomes fielded from the state capital Panaji.

Gomes, who quit the civil service to join the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, joined the Congress in December 2020, claiming the AAP no longer represented the ideals it was set up for.

He will now take on the BJP’s Atanasio “Babush” Monserrate and possibly Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal who is likely to make an announcement on Friday that he will contest as an independent.

Besides Gomes, the Congress has also nominated former BJP MLA Carlos Almeida, who will contest from the Vasco da Gama constituency, a seat he has been representing for the past two terms.

The party has also opted for Anthony “Tony” Dias (Benaulim), Amit Patkar (Curchorem) and Tukaram Borkar (Siroda) for its three seats.

The Congress has entered into an alliance with Goa Forward Party and has conceded three seats to its alliance partner.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) too has announced a list of four candidates with former minister José Philip D’Souza fielded from Dabolim, Rehan Muzawar from Navelim, Digvijay Priolkar Verlekar from Priol and Subhash Prabhudesai from Shiroda. The NCP, which has announced a pre-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena has said that the two parties will jointly contest around a dozen seats in Goa.