Team Herald
PANJIM: Contrary to the speculation that voters will teach defectors a lesson, the results of Mandrem and Shiroda by-election came as surprise with both the Congress rebels – Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar – retaining their respective seats on BJP ticket.
The anti-incumbency wave and party rebellion within Congress and BJP did not have much of an effect in Mandrem; though it gave Shirodkar some uneasy moments. While Sopte won with a margin of around 4000 votes, Shirodkar scraped through by just 76 votes. With their victory, Sopte will be reappointed as Chairman of GTDC and Shirodkar will head EDC.
Sopte and Shirodkar, both had resigned from Congress in October, last year only to join BJP.
The election in both the constituencies was crucial as former BJP CM Laxmikant Parsekar and former BJP minister Mahadev Naik had expressed their unhappiness over induction of the two former Congressmen. Parsekar, continuing in party, distanced himself from campaigning for Sopte in Mandrem, in Shiroda, Naik joined hands with Congress to fight against his rival.
In Mandrem, for the first time that a party defector has managed to retain the seat. In the past, Ramakant Khalap, who jumped from MGP to Congress, lost to Sangeeta Parab in 1999.
It was smooth sailing for Sopte (13,468) against Congress’s Babi Bagkar, who polled only 4239 votes. It was independent candidate Jit Arolkar who stood second by securing 9343 votes.
As far as Shirodkar is concerned, Congress’ Mahadev Naik (2402) was nowhere near to him. MGP’s Deepak Dhavalikar got 10,585 votes, while Shirodkar polled 10,661 votes.
