Too many CMs fighting poll
PTI, PANAJI | 29 May 2007 19:03 ISTThe 40-member Goa Assembly polls, scheduled on June 2, will decide the fate of six former chief ministers and the current chief minister in the state.
Of them, four are contesting on Congress ticket and one each on Bharatiya Janata Party, Nationalist Congress Party and Save Goa Front.
Two former chief ministers -- Luzinho Faleiro (Congress) and Churchill Alemao (SGF) -- are fighting against each other in South Goa's Naveli constituency.
Goa's Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane is contesting on a Congress ticket from his traditional Poriem constituency.
Rane, chief minister of Goa for five times since 1980, holds the record for serving maximum on the chair.
Rane became chief minister after the Congress' first ever win in 1980 after the Goa Liberation 1961. He retained the post of the Union territory after the 1985 election.
Rane also led Goa to statehood and became the first official chief minister of Goa state. Goa was made into full-fledged statehood on May 30, 1987, but the elected Assembly led by Rane was allowed to continue till the expiry of term of five years.
After that Rane continued to be chief minister till 1990.
The Poriem legislator was again sworn in for a five-year term in 1994 and 2005 till date.
The Congress party, which ruled the state for most years post-liberation, has four former chief ministers along with Rane in the fray.
Ravi Naik, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief and a two-time chief minister between 1991 to 1993 and just for a week in April 1994, is contesting from Ponda constituency.