Goa election: Michael Lobo’s wife, his aide in new Congress list of candidates

Goa election: Michael Lobo’s wife Delilah will contest from the Siolim constituency on a Congress ticket, according to the new Congress list of five candidates.

PANAJI: The Congress on Wednesday announced its fifth list of candidates of five names that includes Delilah Lobo, wife of former BJP minister Michael Lobo, who along with her husband and supporters, recently joined the Congress as well as his aide Kedar Naik.

Goa election: Former Goa minister Michael Lobo and his wife Delilah Lobo, who joined the Congress, have been given party tickets to contest the (ANI)

Delilah will contest from the Siolim constituency while Kedar Naik will contest from Saligao.

The Congress also named Moreno Rebello from the Curtorim seat, a clear message to Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, the former Congress legislator from Curtorim who quit the party to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC). This week, Lourenco resigned from the TMC and asked the Congress to take him back.

Former advocate general of Goa Carlos Ferreira has been announced as the party’s candidate from the Aldona constituency.

In all, the party has announced candidates for 32 assembly constituencies but several crucial segments remain including capital city of Panaji, and the bellwether seat of Benaulim in South Goa. The party has conceded two seats to the Goa Forward Party, so far.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Wilfred D’Sa resigned from the party as an MLA on Wednesday and is expected to contest as an independent. D’Sa, who was one among the ten MLAs who defected from the Congress to the BJP back in 2019, represented the Christian-dominated Nuvem constituency, which observers said, made his re-election on a BJP ticket highly unlikely forcing him to contest as an Independent.

There is speculation that another BJP MLA and water resources minister, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, may quit the party to switch to the Trinamool Congress.