MANDAL ON THE MANDOVI?

Amidst all the personal and party rivalries, a novel factor—backward caste politics— reshapes Goa’s electoral map

- KIRAN D. TARE

It’s a pleasant mid-January morning in Sankhali, an old inland town in north Goa that once used to be a small but bustling entrepot connecting the coast downriver and the Ghat sections on the east. Sanquelim, they used to call it, but here, almost 25 miles from the coast, there isn’t a lot of that old Lusitanian accent to things—it’s more classic middle India. Pramod Sawant syncs with that modest landscape as he gets ready to leave his house for the day’s campaigning—looking pretty much like the 49-year-old Ayurvedic doctor he would have been had he not joined politics.

You don’t much see the Indian politician’s trademark khadi uniform in these parts; India’s ‘common man’ look defines the Goan variety of the species. Sawant is no exception—the black dial Rado watch on his wrist is the only sign of indulgence as he comes out barefoot onto the porch, outfitted in a spotted white shirt, grey trousers and a white N-95 mask. A plastic chair separates the chief minister from the queued-up crowd. After the last citizen gets his two minutes and the last written appeal is filed away, Sawant goes inside, emerges in black cut shoes and gets into his white Innova Crysta, next to the driver. The convoy is just two police vans.