At corner meetings, she is trying her best to woo voters with her simplicity, local dialect and gender connect.
Panaji: Residents of Gudi Paroda, a small village in South Goa’s Quepem taluka, are fascinated by the simplicity of Pallavi Dempo, the multi-billionaire BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha election.
Dempo arrives at the local panchayat hall in her Toyota Innova. She is seated on the back seat with a lot of papers scattered besides her. She has been clearing her office work in between corner meetings. Her lady secretary occupies the front seat alongside the chauffeur.
Clad in a yellow saree and black blouse, Dempo dresses the part. She wears a long mangalsutra and sports kumkum on her forehead. A garland of white flowers in hair, one golden bangle on each wrist and the pallu of the saree draped over shoulders gives her a sanskari Hindu Goan identity.
Dempo, 49, is India’s richest Lok Sabha candidate. She has declared joint assets of Rs 1,400 crore along with her husband Shrinivas, Chairman of the Dempo Group. She is the BJP’s first-ever woman candidate in any Lok Sabha election so far in Goa.
One of the most respected industrialist families in Goa, the Dempos have interests in mining, shipping, media, football, education and services.
Pallavi holds a post graduate degree in business management from Pune’s Maharashtra Institute of Technology. She looks after the family’s business in media, real estate, education and the charity work.
Voice in Delhi
At a corner meeting, Pallavi Dempo begins her speech in chaste Konkani. Though she is a newbie in politics, she understands the importance of religion in her constituency, in which 24 per cent of voters are Catholics. “In our educational institutes, we never discriminate between students from different religions,” she tells the audience. “We have provided financial assistance to poor students as well.”
Seeing a lot of women in the audience, Dempo plays to the gallery. “I am the first woman candidate for the BJP. Tell me is there any work a man can do but a woman can’t?” she asks, amid an applause. In her brief speech that barely lasts for five minutes, she counts the achievements of the Narendra Modi government and appeals to the voters to re-elect Modi as Prime Minister. The only sentence she utters about herself is, “I can only say that I would become your voice in Delhi.”
Surprise choice
The selection of Pallavi Dempo for the tough South Goa seat has surprised BJP workers. She has been fielded overlooking the claims of former MP Narendra Sawaikar and former MLA Chandrakant Kuvalekar. Eyebrows were raised when she and Shrinivas attended the consecration ceremony at Shri Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22. That was the first indication that one of them could be a BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha election. Shrinivas Dempo had purchased an electoral bond of Rs 1.25 crore in his personal capacity. Four of his company’s subsidiaries had also purchased electoral bonds.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant says Pallavi Dempo is the right choice for the South Goa seat. “The opponents say she is an outsider. Let me tell them she is the daughter of the soil. She grew up in South Goa itself. In her, the people of South Goa will get an educated and humble public representative.”
Uphill battle
South Goa has always been a challenge for the BJP. The party has managed to win this seat just twice in 2009 and 2014. The Congress has won the seat 10 times since 1962. This time, Congress candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes, a former naval officer, has the backing of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as well.
Dempo’s chances of winning depend upon the voter turnout in Hindu-dominated areas like Madgaon, Ponda, Quepem and Canacona. As she belongs to the powerful Saraswat community, Dempo may get help from Shrinivas’ association with the influential Gaudapadacharya Mutt. The Saraswat community is an ardent follower of this Mutt. The community is also the largest landholder in South Goa.
“They can certainly influence the workers in their fields to vote for Pallavi Dempo,” says a senior BJP leader. “We have clearly instructed our Catholic MLAs to work hard for her. Their rise in the party also depends upon their contribution in her victory,” the leader says with a smile.
Interestingly, Dempo has the support of S. Phangnon Konyak, the first woman Rajya Sabha member from Nagaland. Phangnon accompanies Dempo on her corner meetings. Dempo introduces her as a Catholic member of the Rajya Sabha in an attempt to influence Catholic voters. This is the astuteness the politics seems to have taught her.
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