Why Are Political Parties Targeting Vijay Sardesai Of Goa Forward Party?

In Goa’s assembly elections everyone is targeting outlier Goa Forward Party (GFP) chief Vijay Sardesai. From the manner in which the Trinamool Congress (TMC) fielded its Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro from Fatorda to take on Sardesai, it does seem like Mamata Banerjee’s team is trying to take revenge on Sardesai who has aligned with the Congress. Sardesai himself feels the TMC is only trying to “put” pressure on him for a renegotiation. Unlike his assessment, however, the Trinamool appears to have forced Faleiro to contest the assembly elections from an unfamiliar seat. Apparently the TMC’s Bengal cadre was unhappy when Faleiro was given TMC’s Rajya Sabha nomination. Incidentally, the former Goa CM is not contesting from his traditional seat of Navelim and, his seat was allotted to Valenka Alemao, daughter of former NCP leader Churchil Alemao, who has joined TMC. Did the BJP, whose government Vijay has supported all these years, treated him any better? Of course not! The ruling party snatched his sitting MLA, Jayesh Salgaonkar and then fielded him from Saligao. “I contested four seats in 2017, won three,” recalls Vijay with pride.  If one migrated to the BJP, he lost the other seat to a Congress ally. The Congress has fielded Delailah Lobo, wife of Minister Michael Lobo from Siolim, a seat GFP won in 2017. Lobo defected to Congress recently.