PANAJI: After a long delay, Congress on Monday picked president of the state unit Girish Chodankar and former chief minister Francisco Sardinha for the North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha constituencies respectively. The names were cleared by the Congress central election committee headed by Congress national president Rahul Gandhi on Monday evening.While Chodankar’s name was confirmed earlier, the party struggled with the decision for South Goa till Monday. Sources said Congress women’s wing president Pratima Coutinho was a strong contender for the ticket and senior party functionaries had a hard time selecting the candidate. The choice was between a new face and an experienced one.Sardinha, a five-term MLA, was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998.He was re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha in a by-election in November, 2007 after incumbent Churchill Alemao resigned to contest assembly elections Sardinha was re-elected in 2009, but in 2014, Congress ignored him and opted for Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco.This will be the first parliamentary election for Chodankar. The former state Youth Congress president and former AICC national in-charge of NSUI had contested, although unsuccessfully, against former chief minister Manohar Parrikar in the 2017 bypoll for the Panaji assembly seat.According to Congress insiders, Chodankar would have preferred to contest the Lok Sabha election from South Goa, a constituency which has predominantly been with Congress. However, party high command is of the opinion that if Chodankar contests the elections from North Goa, the party may have a shot at winning both the seats.In 2014, BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa by retaining the North Goa seat for the fourth time, while wresting Congress’ South Goa bastion.Initially, Congress was slated to declare the candidates for the bypolls and two Lok Sabha seats on March 19, but following the demise of chief minister Manohar Parrikar, it delayed the announcement. The party also appeared to be in two minds about the candidates for South Goa with Youth Congress workers supporting Coutinho, while senior party men vouched for Sardinha’s ability to connect with members from all communities in rural parts of Goa.Lawyer Cleofato Coutinho who had the backing of former chief minister Digambar Kamat, was also a strong contender for the South Goa ticket.

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