TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Can the Goa Vikas Party (GVP) headed by Mickky Pacheco upset Congress’ poll calculations in minority dominated Salcete? Or, will the Congress overcome the challenge posed by this Salcete based regional outfit in its traditional strongholds of Benaulim and Nuvem segments?
Two years after the nascent regional outfit rocked the Congress fort in Nuvem and Benaulim in the 2012 Assembly poll with convincing victories, the GVP is back again to torment Congress’ poll managers. A day after the April 12 polling for the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency, poll managers of both the BJP and the Congress are focussing on the outcome of the near 40,000 votes polled in minority Nuvem (20194) and Benaulim (19187) ~ which can make or mar the prospects of the two main contenders.
The Mickky and Caitu camps were brimming with confidence that their groundwork will pay rich dividends for the BJP. Bereft of any organisation worth its name in Benaulim and Nuvem, the Congress, on the other hand, is banking solely on the silent voters who thronged the polling booths on their own to cast their vote in Saturday’s polling.
Take the case of Nuvem. Flamboyant Mickky says that the BJP candidate will poll huge vote this time. “If not a lead, I am confident the BJP will come close to the Congress. Our game plan to support the BJP has worked. The Congress is aware of the ground reality on the day of polling”, he said.
Around 20194 voters had cast their votes in Nuvem segment in Saturday’s polling. Notwithstanding Mickky’s confidence, poll statistics, however, do not seem to favour the BJP in this Catholic dominated segment. Records of the 2004 Lok Sabha poll revealed that the BJP had polled only 1457 votes as compared to a whopping 10683 votes by the Congress, giving the then Congress candidate Churchill Alemao a huge lead. A similar situation had emerged in the 2009 Lok Sabha election as well. BJP’s Narendra Sawaikar could manage to poll only 1524 vote in Nuvem as compared to the 8956 votes polled by Congress’ Francisco Sardinha. In both these Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was left far behind, giving the Congress unassailable leads in Nuvem segments, which in the ultimate analysis helped the Congress romp home with comfortable victories.
Questions are being asked in political circles whether the GVP supremo would be in a position to swing the huge minority vote in favour of the BJP this time. The Congress said a firm no, saying that unlike the 2012 Assembly poll, seeking why the minority vote would simply swing towards the BJP – a party which they had never voted in the past. “No doubt, Mickky might have worked overtime to woo the Nuvem electorate to the BJP, but that will not stop the Congress to take a huge lead as usual”, remarked a Congress leader.
In Benaulim, GVP MLA Caitu Silva’s camp appears an elated lot over the polling. They say that the BJP will for the first time cross the 5000-vote mark in Benaulim and that Sawaikar might finally end up in polling 7500-8000 votes this time. Says Caitu’s Personal Assistant, Elvis Gomes: “We are satisfied with Saturday’s polling. The BJP would cross the 5000-vote mark and will come close to polling around 8000 votes. The Congress was never in the picture in Benaulim in this election.”
Poll statistics of the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, however, do not paint a rosy picture for the BJP in this Catholic dominated segment. In 2009, the BJP had managed to poll around 3077 votes ~ the highest ever polled by the party in any Lok sabha poll in Benaulim. Sources said the BJP could poll this vote due to the work done by Mickky and his group when he was a Minister in the Parrikar regime. Even in that election, the Congress had romped home by polling 10372 votes, leaving the BJP way behind.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP’s tally of vote in Benaulim segment had slumped to a bare 1720 vote, again giving the Congress an upper hand in the segment.
Congress poll managers concede in private that the Congress could not even manage to arrange polling agents in Benaulim after the block switched their allegiance to Churchill Alemao. But, they hastened to add that though the GVP was better organised throughout the campaign and on the day of polling, the Congress would maintain its stranglehold over Benaulim. “The fact that 19187 voters turned up to cast their vote despite the Congress lacking in the organisation shows they have come out to vote for the secular forces. Do you think the voters have come out in large numbers to vote for the BJP? The very fact that 10795 women voters came to cast their vote shows that all is not lost for the Congress in Benaulim”, remarked a Congress leader.
