Team Herald
PANJIM: If it was not for the Catholic candidates, BJP’s margin would have reduced to a single digit, a situation faced by Congress in the 2012 elections. The seven Catholic candidates, including Mauvin Godinho, who quit Congress to join BJP days before the polls, retained their seats saving BJP from further embarrassment.
In the north, incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza’s performance was remarkable as he is one of the two candidates in the entire lot to win by a huge margin. The Mapusa MLA fetched 10,957 votes against MGP’s Vinod Phadke who managed to get 4149 votes. The difference between the two was 6808 votes.
D’Souza was BJP’s lone Catholic candidate until 2012 when the party decided to introduce more faces from the minority community. “I was the only Catholic MLA for a long time. Five more joined in 2012. Fortunately they have retained their seats,” he told Herald after the win.
Curchorem’s Nilesh Cabral won by the highest 9088 margin against Goa Suraksha Manch’s Shyam Satardekar. The BJP candidate scored 12,830 votes while the first runner up got 3742 votes.
The performance of other Catholic candidates also came as a saviour to the BJP. Calangute’s Michael Lobo, one of the winnable faces also did not let the party down as he received 11,136 votes defeating his arch rival Joseph Sequeira from the Congress, who got 7311 votes. The winning margin is counted at 3,745 votes. Speaking to Herald he attributes his second stint to “the people of Calangute who have reposed faith in me and acknowledged the developmental works in the constituency.”
Aldona’s Glenn Ticlo had a close victory-margin as he won by 537 votes. The total number of votes he got was 5486 against Congress’ Amarnath Panjikar who earned 4949 votes. Similarly, Alina Saldanha won by a small margin of 518 votes against Independent candidate Antonio Vas. She garnered 5666 votes while Vas got 5148 votes. “I have got another opportunity to carry forward the legacy of my late husband Matanhy Saldanha and I will strive hard to take the legacy forward,” the ecstatic lone BJP woman MLA said.
Former Congressman Mauvin Godinho, who ditched the party to join hands with the BJP got 7234 votes defeating Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party’s Premanand Nanoskar (4740 votes). The gap between the two was 2494 votes. Vasco too saw BJP retaining its seat with Jose Luis Carlos Almeida winning against Independent Krishna Salkar by 1351 votes. A total of 8765 votes went in the favour of the BJP leader, the Independent got 7414 votes.
