TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Hectic campaigning for the April 12 Lok Sabha elections came to a close on Wednesday, with both BJP and Congress camps in South Goa keeping their fingers crossed till counting day on May 16.
The BJP camp was bubbling with confidence over the encouraging response at Sawaikar’s meetings in Salcete – be they in Navelim, Nuvem or Benaulim assembly segments. The party expects the huge turnouts at its meetings in South Goa will translate into votes. Yet, leaders appear over cautious not to jump to conclusions as the party appeared bracing up to cross the last hurdle two days from now.
In fact, if turnout at meetings is a yard stick to measure success at an election, the BJP certainly enjoyed a clear-cut advantage over their rivals in the fray. Perhaps for the first time, Congress was left way behind in terms of crowd mobilisation at public meetings in the minority heartland of Navelim, Nuvem and Benaulim. In Benaulim and Navelim in particular, the Congress organisation was exposed hollow since it had no wherewithal to hold a meeting or two in these two segments, while the BJP meeting at Nuvem left many a political observer with the question whether the turnout will ensure success of the BJP candidate.
Says Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar: “This time around, the BJP is comfortably placed in Salcete taluka. Compared to last time, our position has improved in four segments in Salcete. This time, we would get a good share of the Salcete vote. Whether, we would get a lead or not is another thing because there are too many variables in Salcete”.
That’s not all. Parrikar said the BJP is well placed in Salcete because of the support of four local MLAs. “Last time, we had only a lone MLA in Salcete, but no supporting MLAs. This time, the BJP has four supporting MLAs”, he said.
The opposition camp, however, appears not unduly worried about
the turnouts at the BJP meetings.
Though the response at the BJP meetings has got the Congress worried, party leaders put up a brave face to say that many people have attended the BJP meetings so as not to antagonise the ruling MLAs.
“We have information that people at many places attended the meetings out of fear of the ruling MLAs. There are stakeholders in every business who had to rally behind their MLAs or face retribution. But we are confident that even those who had attended the BJP meetings will vote for
the Congress this time to keep communal forces out”, remarked independent MLA from Fatorda Vijai Sardessai.
