Team Herald
PANJIM: The Chimbel slum became a crucial area in St Cruz constituency for all contestants on polling day as all of them were seen camping here with their supporters and even with immediate family members and friends.
St Cruz constituency has 27,578 voters of which almost 6,000 voters live in the slums of Chimbel and Indiranagar, and almost all are migrants. Going by past trends, most of the candidates were banking on these votes to take them to victory.
A local social worker, Sitaram Naik, said that in the past the Chimbel vote decided who was elected as the St Cruz MLA.
St Cruz has traditionally voted for Congress and in 2012 it was Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate who, despite being from the neighboring constituency, had managed to win here.
The campaign saw Congress candidate Tony Fernandes, BJP’s Hemant Golatkar and Independent Helena Lourenco in Chimbel. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a series of public meetings in Chimbel during the campaign which was addressed by their national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
On Saturday, all the candidates were seen moving in and around the slums with supporters and volunteers. They were hardly seen in other parts of the constituency but spent most of the time in Chimbel.
They were seen at different points of entry to the slum area as there is no main entry and exit point to the slums. Chimbel has 12 booths for voting, out of that nine booths are only for slum areas catering to the approximately 6000 voters.
Almost all the candidates have assured the slum dwellers that their houses will be regularised once they are voted to the Assembly, which was the main issues in this area.
Congress candidate Tony Fernandes says he gets along with the other two village panchayats.
However, BJP candidate Golatkar said it is up to the people to decide who to vote for. “We have given them our manifesto and they have seen our work, they should vote for us,” he said.
