Three-term Fatorda MLA Vijai
Sardesai has experienced highs and lows in his career – starting as an
independent legislator, rising to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post in the BJP government, and now a fierce opposition voice. In an interview with Ramnath N Pai Raikar, Sardesai spoke about his decade-old Goa Forward Party, the psyche of Goan voters, the Congress and his master plan for the state.
Goa Forward Party (GFP) will complete 10 years in January 2026. Are you satisfied with its achievements?
GFP was born out of the Fatorda Forward panel, which won 11 seats in the 2015 Margao municipal election. When a journalist asked me whether Fatorda Forward would go on to be Goa Forward, I replied ‘maybe’. The Congress ridiculed me for this. When things didn’t work out with Congress, I decided to float GFP in 2016. For the 2017 assembly polls, I held talks with the Congress and I was given the go-ahead to contest Fatorda, Siolim and Saligao constituencies, without heeding to my demand for Velim. Subsequently, Congress declared its candidates in Fatorda and Saligao. So, there was no alliance between the GFP and Congress. Although both parties have similar ideologies, my party is regionalistic, not regional. We won three seats and lost one. Congress should have formed the government, but failed. We took up many issues like opposing the BJP government’s decision to term the coconut tree as grass. We got it reversed, and made it a state tree. We brought Goemkarponn as a part of the political discourse and governance. We even wanted the Opinion Poll in the educational curriculum and celebrated as a state event. I am also continuously putting up a Bill for 80 per cent job reservation for Goans in the private sector.
GFP won three seats in 2017. This, however, dropped to one in 2022.
People felt that I should have not aligned with BJP in 2017. I was not duty bound to align with Congress as it had discarded GFP and even made a pre-results statement that it would have a post-poll alliance with Goa Suraksha Manch. However, people expected us to be with a non-BJP formation. That was held against me. I also regret it to some extent. I don’t regret supporting (Manohar) Parrikar, but regret continuing support to the dispensation that followed Parrikar’s death. My party should have come out of the Pramod Sawant government. In fact, I had proposed it to my colleagues, but they had become too ensconced with their positions. Now I feel that this unfavourable condition does not exist. GFP has consistently been a vocal opposition since 2019.
Generally, it is perceived that Goans’ memory on important issues is
short-lived.
No. I believe that Goemkar is socio-politically conscious. If not, a person like me would not have won as an independent at the 2012 election when Congress was ruling and BJP was on the cusp of gaining power. Today, however, attention is diverted from important issues. The Centre is doing it and so is the state government. We have to be alert and create more awareness. They will start with Hindu-Catholic or Hindu-Muslim divide, or bring the lobby of conversion, or discuss Hindu rashtra by ignoring unemployment in Goa, which is the second highest in the country, or ignore fiscal prudence.
Goa is facing a paradigm shift in its population, demography and identity, due to the large influx of people from the rest of India.
In-migration is sociologically seen as a growth, although we look at it in a different way. We should not view this negatively. There are economic activities because of Brand Goa, or as Brand Goa sells, whether the government does its job or not. People must benefit from this. Today, the government appears to be penny wise, pound foolish due to its short-sighted policies. People from Delhi and Haryana buying apartments and villas here want to create Gurgaon in Goa without respecting our ethos, culture and identity. Rather, they should be welcomed as tourists. The government should support more hotels than second homes. Or else this second home business will one day make Goa an old-age home as the younger local population is leaving for better prospects. In fact, the government is not even conducting the carrying capacity study for villages.
Congress in Goa is facing internal conflicts. You were once an office bearer.
My association with Congress spanned for nearly three decades, including my tenure as Youth Congress president and general secretary. I headed its many Lok Sabha poll campaigns. The party is going through a difficult phase. As a pre-poll ally, I feel sad for it. Today, it is a new Congress. It has to don its role as the principal Opposition, and people expect to have its house in order. Goans have repeatedly endorsed it, the latest being the 2024 Lok Sabha election, in which South Goa voters, allies like us and civil society – and not the Congress organisation – were responsible for electing the Congress candidate. Congress should not take such support for granted.
People perceive you as a studious and intelligent legislator, akin to Parrikar’s mould.
I was a very vocal Opposition MLA against Parrikar. He was a very sharp legislator and Chief Minister, and would ridicule others for small mistakes. He would even go to the extent of cross-checking words in the dictionary used by MLAs. I was very careful not to become an object of his ridicule. I had to undertake a deep study of subjects. He had advised me, in front of my wife, in 2012 when he became Chief Minister again, that I should compulsorily stay in Panaji during the entire period of the assembly sessions, as also during preceding days of these sessions for preparation. He had said that I should focus on the session as if it was an exam, and pass with flying colours. I keenly followed this advice, and even used it against him. Today, the efforts I put in during the sessions are little less, as the level of aptitude of the ruling opposing forces is very low. They come unprepared, don’t know their own policies and don’t even see what the budget is! Everything I have raised in assembly is based on facts. I tried to create a novel idea of going to every taluka, hearing grievances and raising them in assembly. I have succeeded to a large extent and will take this model forward to the constituencies for creating an agenda for Goa, the state’s own model of development. It will be a master plan and not a ‘master’s plan’.
Interview series to continue
