Panaji, March 12 (TNN): Former chief minister Ravi Naik has emerged the frontrunner as Congress candidate for the North Goa Parliamentary seat, edging out BJP's St Andre MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh from the race.

Wagh's "exorbitant demands" are said to be the reason for the Congress dropping him from consideration. Commenting on this Wagh told TOI, "Some trees do not bloom even in season and the Congress is like that." Wagh, who earlier topped the list of probable Congress candidates, was supposed to quit BJP and join Congress who would field him as their candidate in North Goa.

Wagh on Monday asserted that he would not quit BJP. "My constituents also told me not to leave BJP," he told TOI. Some of his workers said mismanagement by Congress and factionalism in the party came in the way of Wagh's entry into Congress.

With Wagh out of the race and Ravi Naik the front runner, the Congress logic appears to be "send a Bhandari Samaj man to oust a Bhandari Samaj man". Besides his powerful oratory, his Bhandari Samaj caste was the reason why Congress felt Wagh was the best man to defeat BJP's Shripad Naik.

Though Ravi Naik had submitted his application for the ticket earlier, he was not too keen because he felt the seat would be allocated to NCP and he wasn't interested in fighting on an NCP ticket. With Congress deciding to go alone for the April 12 polls, Ravi Naik's interest has been renewed.

Sources said opposition leader Pratapsingh Rane and GPCC chief John Fernandes are air-dashing to Delhi for a meeting on Wednesday with the zonal screening committee headed by Vyalar Ravi and including AICC general secretary in charge of Goa, Digvijaya Singh. They will now deliberate on the suitability or winnability of Ravi Naik over Ramakant Khalap and Jitendra Deshprabhu, who are the other two probables on the Congress list.

The meeting had earlier been scheduled on Tuesday but with the state Congress holding its rally in South Goa on that day, the meeting had to be postponed.

Though there was speculation that Khalap could be a better candidate for Congress, given his credentials as a former Union minister, the answer lies in caste politics. Sources said that being a Maratha, Khalap may not be the best person to defeat Shripad Naik of the Bhandari Samaj, who are in a majority in Goa.

Also, Congress feels that Khalap lobbied hard with NCP's Maratha chieftain Sharad Pawar for an NCP ticket hoping that the Congress-NCP alliance would stand and the North Goa seat would go to NCP.

Though Fernandes and Rane will meet the Vyalar Ravi committee in Delhi and finalize the name on March 12, the names will then go to the Congress central working committee and the decision will be announced by the Congress Parliamentary board by March 20. Nominations begin on March 19.

Congress sources said that the name of its sitting South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha is almost through but do not rule out the possibility of former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro staging a last minute coup from Delhi. That possibility seems bleak, observers say, because if Faleiro was keen on contesting, he should have started campaigning in the constituency by this time.