Cong, AAP candidates file nomination for South Goa LS seat

Leaders from the BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party Tuesday filed nominations for two Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats in Goa that will go to polls on April 23. Congress leader Francisco Sardinha and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Elvis Gomes on Tuesday filed their respective nominations for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat.

Sardinha is a former Member of Parliament, while Gomes, who quit the Goa government service in the run-up to 2017 state Assembly polls to join politics, is AAP's state convener. Sardinha (73) filed his nomination papers before South Goa district election officer Ajit Roy in Margao town.

He was accompanied by Congress MLAs Digambar Kamat and Isidor Fernandes along with a large number of supporters. After filing his nomination, Sardinha expressed confidence of winning the seat.

"The people of South Goa are looking for a change and there is already a 'Congress wave'," he claimed. Later in the afternoon, 56-year-old Gomes also filed his nomination papers before Roy and told reporters that this time people will vote for AAP.

Gomes, who was AAP's chief ministerial candidate in the 2017 state Assembly polls, had lost his deposit while contesting from the Cuncolim seat in South Goa. Sardinha was Congress' South Goa MP from 2009 to 2014.

He lost the last Lok Sabha poll to BJP's Narendra Sawaikar, who has been fielded again by his party from the seat. Sawaikar filed his nomination last week.

Joshua D'Souza, son of former Deputy Chief Minister Francis DSouza, filed his nomination as BJP candidate for the Mapusa Assembly bypoll. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of the former Deputy CM on February 14 this year.

Joshua, a local councillor from the area, filed his nomination papers before the Mapusa Returning Officer (RO) in presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, party president Vinay Tendulkar, MLAs and supporters. Dayanand Sopte, who had quit as Congress MLA and joined the BJP, filed his candidature from Mandrem assembly seat.

Former BJP Minister Mahadev Naik, who recently joined the Congress, filed his nomination papers from Shiroda Assembly seat in South Goa. BJP has fielded Subhash Shirodkar for the Shiroda bypoll.

Shirodkar, along with Sopte, had resigned as Congress MLA and joined the BJP in October last year. Lok Sabha elections to the North Goa and South Goa seats and the three bypolls will be held on April 23. The last date for filing nominations is April 4..