Team Herald
MARGAO: The Elections 2017 has been the most bizarre and most difficult to digest for the Bhartiya Janata Party of South Goa. The BJP has been clean swept by the Congress in South by winning more than what BJP won last elections even after the BJP wave.
Meanwhile, the AAP has pulled sizable number of votes but has not been able to get any of their candidates elected. Parties like the GVP and the GSRP have faded, while Goa Forward Party has gained overall.
As the figures started rolling down the counting booth since morning of Saturday, all were in a fix failing to understand which way the trend is going. However, just before 10.30 am the picture swinging of the democratic franchise of the Grand Old party was getting emphatically clear.
Priol opened the innings and proved to be giant killer mandate. Govind Gaude became the crowned king of the constituency. Govind held to the lead in all 4 rounds of the counting and emerged victorious.
Soon BJP got the expected jolt of BJP’s Mahadev Naik losing, paving way for Subhash Shirodkar of the Congress. The Mormugao taluka comforted the BJP by helping get elected Milind Naik and Mauvin Godinho.
What started after this was a blood bath of not just the BJP but also parties like GVP and GSRP. The candidates of BJP fell one after another like dominos. Micky Pacheco was taken down first by Wilfred D’Sa in Nuvem, followed by Vijai taking down Damu Naik of BJP, Digambar Kamat demolishing Sharmad Raiturkar, Churchill Alemao finishing Caitu Silva and Royla Fernandes of AAP. This followed by series of wins for Congress in Navelim, Cuncolim, Quepem, Curtorim, Ponda.
After some respite of Cortalim, Vasco and Curchorem the Congress began killing again. Meanwhile, Deepak Prabhu Pauskar won Sanvordem for MGP and Sudin won Madkai with the largest margin of over 13 thousand votes. The last nail in the coffin of the BJP’s South Goa dreams was hit by Isidore Fernandes winning Canacona, Prasad Gaonkar winning Sanguem and Filip Neri Rodrigues winning Velim last with a 5,000 votes plus margin.
All these figures proved that there has been an anti-government and anti-establishment sentiment all over the South Goa barring the Mormugao taluka.
A look back at the figures reveals how the BJP has lost and the Congress has gained all over South Goa.
Congress has successfully got the numbers similar to BJP this time. Parties like the GVP and the GSRP have been deleted from the list and along with them have gone leaders like Mickky Pacheco, Caitu Silva, Avertano and others.
