Elections in Goa are due in early 2027.“The process must be completed by December 10 for sure,” declared Prakash Velip, president of UTAA and a former MLA. He claimed Sawant had promised to complete the reservation process by this date.The UTAA will launch a campaign to reach out to the 750-odd tribal hamlets on the issue.
Its leaders have charged the government with “not being serious” on giving them political quota. Meanwhile, Sawant has led a delegation to New Delhi as part of a damage-control exercise to paper over flaws in the process.In August 2025, Parliament approved the ‘Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2025’ to grant 10 per cent quota to tribals in the state.
After much delays, the Centre notified the law that is expected to reserve four seats in the legislative assembly for tribal communities, marking the culmination of a long-pending demand. Tribal people constitute around 10.23 per cent of Goa’s population.
The state currently has four tribal MLAs, elected from general category seats—minister Ramesh Tawadkar (Canacona), former minister Govind Gaude (Priol), legislative assembly speaker Ganesh Gaonkar (Sanvordem) of the BJP, and Independent Antonio Vas (Cortalim), who supports the ruling party.Although STs and Scheduled Castes (SCs) have 12.5 per cent and 2 per cent quotas respectively in jobs and education, the STs have not been given reservations in the assembly. The SCs have one seat reserved for them in the 40-member House—Pernem bordering Maharashtra in North Goa, which is represented by Pravin Arlekar of the BJP.While the Priol, Nuvem, Sangeum and Quepem seats are proposed to be reserved for STs, the Bombay High Court on October 26 granted an interim stay on the notification, putting the process on hold.
The petitioner Edwin Lucio Fernandes had challenged the constitutional validity of the Act, and said that the process be done after the ongoing socio-economic and caste census. Velip sought that the stay be challenged in the Supreme Court.However, tribal activist Govind Shirodkar, who is the vice-president of UTAA, said that any delays in implementing the political quota for tribals was unacceptable.
Basing the notification on the ongoing census would mean that the process would be delayed till the assembly elections of 2032. Shirodkar was part of the high-level delegation led by Sawant to New Delhi.
The high court stay will be challenged by the government in the Supreme Court.“We were added to the ST category in 2003. While tribal groups from other states have been given political quotas, only we have been kept waiting for the past 23 years,” he added.
Shirodkar warned that if the 2027 assembly elections were held sans the tribal quota, the tribal communities would vote against the BJP.Shirodkar said the Union government had delayed issuing the notification, and agencies such as the Election Commission and Registrar General and Census Commissioner had failed to put forth their stance in a proper manner in the high court.The Gauda/Gawda, Kunbi and Velip communities were added to the ST list in 2003. They include both Hindus and Catholics.
However, for over two decades, the tribals have not been given political reservations in the assembly. Smaller tribal groups include the Dubla, Siddi, Naikda, Varli and Dhodia.Political reservation has been an emotive issue for tribal communities in Goa.
In May 2011, a protest by the UTAA in Balli had taken a violent turn and caused the death of two tribal youths. It cost the Congress, which was then in power, a substantial chunk of the tribal vote in the 2012 polls.
The BJP has held onto power in Goa since then.The unrest in the community over the demand not being met is said to have singed the BJP in the South Goa Lok Sabha seat in 2024, where the party’s Pallavi Dempo was trounced by Captain Viriato Fernandes (retd) of the Congress.Part of the delay has been attributed to opposition from other caste groups, such as the Kshatriya Marathas and Bhandaris, which are seeking a caste census, a rotational reservation system and the postponement of the notification till the updated population data is available. Outfits representing the Kshatriya Marathas and Bhandaris, who together are estimated to form around half of Goa’s 1.6 million population, have called for the reservations to be implemented only after results of the ongoing census—in which castes will also be enumerated—are made public.The Kshatriya Maratha community claims to form 18-20 per cent of Goa’s population (some estimates peg it at around 10 per cent) and has substantial numbers in all assembly seats barring Sangeum.
Chief minister Sawant; ministers Vishwajit Rane and Subhash Phal Dessai; MLAs Ulhas Tuenkar, Rajesh Faldesai and Dr Chandrakant Shetye; and Rajya Sabha MP Sadanand Shet Tanavade belong to the community. Former Union minister Ramakant Khalap and former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar are also Kshatriya Marathas.The Bhandari community, which is estimated at around a third of Goa’s population, has also voiced concerns over the ST quota.
The community is part of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and recognised as the largest caste cohort in the state.Adding to the troubles of the BJP, which is facing anti-incumbency after three consecutive terms in office, is the protest by the Gouly-Dhangars for inclusion in the ST category. The demand been raised since the 1980s.
The Registrar General of India and the Union ministry for tribal affairs have rejected the demand. The demand is being led by Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar, a former deputy chief minister of Goa, who defected from the Congress to the BJP, and the government has been served an ultimatum of November 26.At present, the Gouly-Dhangars are in the OBC category, and are estimated to number around 25,000.
They have the ability to tip the scales in many seats due to the smaller size of the electorate, and thinner victory margins. For instance, in Sanquelim, chief minister Sawant had won by a wafer-thin margin of 666 votes against Dharmesh Saglani of the Congress in 2022.
In Ponda, former chief minister Ravi Naik, a towering leader of the Bhandari community, won by just 77 votes as a BJP nominee against Dr Ketan Bhatikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).Analysts and academicians like Yugank Naik point to how the tribals in Goa are socially and politically aware and assertive and present a “successful model of social awakening and emancipation”. “Tribals are the only group in Goa who took to the streets for their rights,” he said, adding that the tribals had four MLAs, which was equal to the number of legislators from the OBC Bhandari community. The Bhandaris are seen as being antagonised by the BJP, and their combination with tribal voters would lead to a setback for the ruling party.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends