Team Herald.
CUNCOLIM: The municipal elections results in Cuncolim have indicated that the lack of development by the BJP government in Cuncolim was a prime reason they lost ground in the elections.
BJP leaders have called on the party to introspect on what went wrong, keeping in mind the 2017 assembly elections and the recent zilla panchayat elections, where they were also defeated.
Furthermore, with the BJP’s failure to form the council, the workers have criticized the party’s strategy to rely on independent candidates. Another big blow was that the BJP state leaders did not take part in the Cuncolim candidates campaign and failed to help them either financially or morally.
The candidate selection was another mistake made by BJP. Three candidates who were denied candidature by the BJP won the elections.
“We have to perform, otherwise BJP will certainly lose its ground in Cuncolim,” said a party worker.
It is to be noted that BJP managed to get only 30 percent of votes. It had fielded eight candidates and supported four candidates for the 12 ward municipality. Out of 6,891 votes, it succeeded in getting only 1,979 votes. The party workers fear that the likes of Joaquim Alemao, whose shrewd tactics saw him take over the council, or ZP member Clafasio Dias, at whose hands they suffered a beating at the ZP elections, or advocate John Monteiro may fill this gap and it will be too late for the party to recover for the next elections.
Only BJP’s Ashok Fatde from Talwada and Polita Carneiro from Maddicotto got elected in the Cuncolim elections. The candidate from Culwada, which is the BJP’s stronghold, stood last by getting a meagre 40 out of 900 votes. Even at Veroda, the BJP candidate’s votes did not reach three digits, while Ravindra Fal Dessai pooled only 90 votes and stood third.
In Bhiunsa, BJP Mandal Chief Vishal Dessai lost to sitting Councilor Premdeep Dessai by a margin of over 125 votes. Demani was another stronghold of BJP, but this time, Demani voters rejected its candidate and opted for Joacquim Alemao’s candidate Angelina Painginkar. In Sanvorcotto, the BJP had fielded young Satyavan Naik, who lost by a narrow margin. Panzorconi is also slipping from the BJP’s clutches, although the party has initiated many schemes in this ward.
It is another matter that BJP didn’t even try to contest in four wards – Dandora, Guleacotto, Voddi and Comba-Paricotto – and relied on independents.
