In Goa, Ricardo D’Souza is synonymous with Tito’s. He is co-owner of one of Goa’s iconic nightclubs with a legacy that goes back nearly 50 years. His late father Tito Henry D’Souza started a cozy restaurant on the placid Baga beach, which wooed the flower power generation into the sleepy coastal belt, making D’Souza and his family central to building Goa’s tourism ecosystem.

The director of Tito’s Resorts and Hospitalities Pvt Ltd. is now swerving into politics; a move that many are describing as rather bold. While two-time MLA Michael Lobo, who recently stirred up a hornet’s nest after he switched from the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) to the Congress, staring at a hat-trick win in Calangute when Goa goes to polls tomorrow, D’Souza is hoping to create a dent in this vote bank as an Independent. He will be contesting against other heavyweights, including BJP’s Joseph Sequeira, Anthony Menezes of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Sudesh Mayekar of Aam Admi Party (AAP).