nuvem the nuvem constituency may be a freshly carved battleground but the warhorses are battle weary and seasoned pitted against each other are power minister aleixo sequeira of the congress and former tourism minister francisco mickky pacheco who is the candidate of the goa vikas party gvk of which he is the supremo stakes are high for both the political heavyweights in terms of pride prestige and political significance the new constituency is carved out of the erstwhile loutolim constituencynuvem loutolim and nagoa areaswhich are sequeiras strongholds and the benaulim assembly segmentcalata majorda utorda and betalbatim areaswhere pacheco enjoys a good support base ever since the delimitation of the constituencies pacheco has been eyeing the nuvem constituency and has also managed to cover considerable ground in nuvem panchayat area political observers say that contrary to earlier presumptions pacheco has also made considerable inroads in loutolim panchayat area which has the sequeira camp worried the pachecocamp is upbeat and is confident of winning the seat with remarkable ease i will win with a huge margin thats very much certain i have no opposition at all was how pacheco rated his opponent pacheco promises to bring about development in nuvem in five years which he says sequeira was unable to do for the last 13 years that he has been representing loutolim constituency the st community which comprises nearly 50 of the electorate in the constituency has strongly rallied behind sequeira in the past and indications are that they are unlikely to change their allegiance this time besides the churchill alemaofactor is another aspect that has come into play in this constituency the pwd minister has thrown his weight behind sequeira in the singular aim to defeat his bete noire pacheco who had wrested the benaulim seat from him in the 2002 polls and had retained it in the 2007 elections alemao enjoys considerable support in some pockets of nuvem and this is likely to boost sequeiras prospects the save goa front sgf headed by alemao had fielded remedios fernandes in the last assembly elections and fernandes had polled 4894 votes as against 6435 votes polled by sequeira however sequeira has managed to rope in both fernandes and pausilipo dourado who had also contested against him in the last polls into his camp a factor that is going to work to his advantage asked to comment on the fact that churchill has been supporting sequeira pacheco said it would hardly make any difference to his own prospects it would be wise for him churchill to concentrate on his own navelim constituency and his daughters benaulim constituency where they are both already having tough times pacheco told toi in an informal chat another factor that is likely to affect the poll outcome is the candidature of marcus dsouza the former deputy sarpanch of betalbatim as he is likely to dig into pachecos votes sequeiras supporters on the other hand are banking on the fact that sequeira provided employment to many in the power