TEAM HERALD
PONDA: MGP proved its supremacy in Marcaim, Priol and Ponda constituencies with four of its winning candidates, while two independent candidates tasted success in Usgao and Shiroda.
BJP won the Borim seat and lost the Shiroda seat by a slight margin.
MGP secured its stronghold over Marcaim, Ponda and Veling Priol by winning all four seats at Kavlem, Curti, Veling Priol and Betki Khandola. All seats were won by large margins. The winning candidates are Chitra Fadte (Kavlem), Shivdas Gavde (Veling Priol), Mohan Verenkar (Curti) and Babita Ganokar (Betki Khandola).
Jaydeep Shirodkar (independent) proved to be the giant killer in Shiroda, defeating BJP candidate supported by Industries Minster Mahadev Naik by about 262 votes. Jaydeep polled 4,165 votes, followed by Nagu Kavlekar of BJP (3,893) and Avdut Poku Naik (2,285).
Incidentally, Shiroda ZP seat was taken up for recounting following a demand by Nagu Kavlekar of BJP and the results were the last to be declared.
“Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza had campaigned and tried to defeat me in Shiroda, but I was confident of my victory,” Jaydeep said.
“Power and water shortage problems in the constituency need to be solved,” said Jayesh, son of former MLA late Jaykrishna Shirodkar, who represented Shiroda for two terms.
In Usgao, independent candidate, Dyaneshwar Naik, who was backed by Valpoi MLA Vishwajeet Rane, ousted MGP’s candidate Bharat Naik.
“This is a lesson for the BJP for cheating people with false assurances of restarting mining and declaring a day earlier of the election to restart mining to divert votes. Owners of several trucks having capacity of 20 million tonnes are struggling for livelihood and BJP failed to give justice to the people of Goa. Power, water and inflation are affecting the people. This is a start and we will form the next government,” he said.
In Curti, winning MGP candidate Mohan Verenkar polled 4,614 votes, defeating independent candidate Nilkant Naik (3,495 votes).
In Borim, BJP’s Deepak Naik Borkar won after securing 3,850 votes, followed by Manurai Naik (3,353) and independent candidate Satish Borkar (1398).
