Activist NGOs in Goa to enter election fray

Goa’s civil society groups, who have been raising issues of public concern from the sidelines, have now decided to test political waters and field their own candidates in the March 3 assembly polls.

Accordingly, they have announced their first list of four candidates. The list includes Fr Bismarck Dias, who will be making history by becoming the first Christian priest to contest polls in Goa which has a sizeable Catholic population.

“We will be contesting in all the 40 constituencies fielding credible candidates,” Yatish Naik, Convenor, Pilerne Citizens Forum (PCF), one of the groups, said.

He said, all this while genuine social workers used to distance themselves from the “dirty game” of politics but now they want to make a difference by becoming part of the polity.

“We have decided to get into politics to clean it,” Naik said.