A giant killer emerges in Benaulim
Capt Venzy Viegas is a giant killer, sailing uncharted waters facing many odds. He finally made a land fall in the Goa assembly. He endeared to the people with his simple and down to earth humble ways, his timely help of distributing food ration and oximeters during Covid. AAP is the only party which went to polls with a strong anti corruption plank. Credit must be also given to the victory of civil Engineer Cruz Silva a second time contestant whose brick and mortar strategy was cemented by the hard work of the AAP ‘Karyakartas’ and the able leadership, Gerson Gomes, (Gen Secy Goa unit) who even out foxed the strategy of Prashant Kishore.
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Anti-incumbency factor played a big role and a new game of ludo ‘snakes and ladders’ of vote splitting. Why did the educated electorate not bite the AAP bullet in other constituencies? Goa politics is “Ajab and Gajab” in the words of veteran journalist Sandesh Prabhudesai.What is commendable is, AAP’s zero tolerance to corruption, walk the talk, show us the Delhi model. All the best to the new crusaders.
Agnelo Furtado,
Chinchinim
Cong, a pale shadow of its past glory
As expected the results of the election favouring BJP to form its Ministry is confirmed. However, I feel pity for the voters of Congress because most of them were sincere to the Congress but unfortunately Congress is not serious to protect the interest of its followers.
Gone were the days when Congress Party was manned by the giants of those days but now sadly Congress is lacking not only in giants but even an ordinary office boy in its administration. After the last debacle 5 years back, Congress mysteriously accepted lying down the betrayal of its 10 defectors without creating the necessary uproar, both the headquarters of Congress at Delhi and Panjim were almost dumb thus sending the message to all the Congressmen and its supporters that this very same Congress party once was a giant killer is now turned into a pale shadow of its former self.
There is no point in taking pleasure in highlighting the greatness of its yesteryear leaders in whose absence there is not a single leader in it to revive its functioning. In view of this pathetic situation will I make a mistake if I say R.I.P. Congress at least in Goa?
Now the little hope I have is that the AAP and RG play the role of opposition constructively even if their numerical strength is miniscule.
A Veronica Fernandes, Candolim
Statistics & records of 2022 elections
The Assembly elections held on February 14, 2022 has just revealed its results, Deviya Rane (Poriem) and a BJP candidate has emerged as the candidate with the highest margin of victory, 13,943 votes. She is probably the record holder in the history of Goa Assembly elections and definitely a record for a woman debutante.
Viresh Borkar (St. Andre), an RGP candidate who is also a debutante secured victory with the lowest margin of 76 votes in the elections held. Also in these elections which saw splitting of votes especially amongst the opposition candidates there were 10 candidates whose margin of victory was less than 1000 votes and also there were an identical 10 candidates who also won by a margin of 1000 to 2000 votes in these elections, a clear indication that the polls were very keenly contested. For the record it may also be noted that the BJP vote share was just above 33 per cent while the vote share of the opposition candidates as well as independents was just above 66 per cent. Coincidentally, these same percentages of vote share were also polled in the 2017 assembly elections.
Elvidio Miranda,
Panjim
Cong should ponder on its election fall-out
The Congress in Goa has been decimated as the main reason is the candidates at the last minute thus not giving the required time for canvassing some candidates who got elected were sure to get tickets so they had started the campaigning well in advance but those new faces the Congress had projected had no time to approach the voters of the whole constituency.
Second point was the tickets allotted to candidates were not grassroots workers they were parachuted from other parties and lastly and the main reason is the split of Congress votes by AAP and the RG and TMC to a lesser extent which made the lead to very thin margin.
So these are the main fall-outs the Congress Party should ponder upon and make corrective steps otherwise the space or vacuum created by the Congress party will be filled by the AAP and RG. The same thing which has happened in Punjab due to infighting among Congress leaders led to the downfall and advantage Aam Aadmi Party. Kudos to Kejriwal for the effort he has put in Punjab and even Goa, if they have just opened their account in the next elections they may even cross double digit who knows time will tell the predictions.
Diomedes Pereira, Corlim
Was Congress performance enough?
The assembly polls in Goa has thrown up an unusual verdict that though seems to favour the BJP, is still fraught with deficiencies that does not augur well for the incumbent dispensation. Just like in 2017, the BJP polled just a shade over 33% of the vote share, but however it is strike rate improved from 13 to a high of 20, with several close shaves that could been either way. Even now in 2022 election the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was given a scare by Dharmesh Saglani of the Congress.
Although on the surface BJP seems to have won comfortable margin but still the victory is jittery in spite of the anti incumbency factor of the Congress and the bad governance in the last term.
Digamber Kamat did extremely well for 4 consecutive terms. The AAP managed to make its baptism in Goa by winning 2 seats. Revolutionary Goans also impressively got one seat; MGP with 2 seats and Independents with 3 seats rounded off the tally. However, Michael Lobo of the Congress has a point to prove as he helped win 4 seats out of 7 seats in Bardez. Comparatively, Babush Monserrate trying to tighten his grip on Tiswadi had to be satisfied with just two wins for the BJP. The environmentalist soldier on the Congress ticket lost to Mauvin Godinho of the BJP.
Stephen Dias, Dona Paula
Congratulations to all the new Goa MLAs
Congratulations to all the 40 MLAs of new Goa Assembly of 2022 and specially to CM Dr Pramod Sawant. As we all saw the results live on media and reading today’s Herald in detail the votes taken by each candidates and the vote share one thing I felt and many experts spoke on media while debating is that BJPs win was like divide and Rule cause of AAP, RG, TMC, votes split all over but all said and done a win is a win and BJP always has a good strategy and good planning whenever they come on field and not forgetting its workers who work tirelessly throughout the years.
Although BJP had declared its CM face before elections I hope and pray the games of musical chairs don’t start in BJP. For Congress, one last word is to learn mind game and strategy from BJP and start working from now onwards and not wait at the last moment for the selection of candidates.
Jerry L Dsouza, Divar
