PANJIM: The result of by-election and a declining margin for the LS polls has proven the very fact that Panjim was never BJP’s stronghold but (late) former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s bastion. Moreover, what came as surprise was that Ponjekars, who gave BJP’s winning North Goa LS MP Shripad Naika lead of over 200 votes on April 23; ridiculed the saffron party’s losing by-poll candidate Sidharth Kuncalienker within a month’s time by voting him out with similar margin.
While BJP lost the Panjim seat to Congress for the first time after two and half decades; BJP’s margin from the constituency for the Lok Sabha declined by over 80 percent compared to the 2014 parliamentary election. This makes it evident that Parrikar, who was the uncrowned king of this constituency, held BJP’s flag high in this assembly segment.
BJP Goa under the leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will now assess the factors that led to party’s debacle in Panjim; the constituency that they had been ruling since 1994, when Parrikar got elected as the capital city’s MLA for the first time.
“We will have to assess what went wrong in Panjim. Everything was perfect. We have to see what factor went against us,” said Sawant on Thursday, soon after the result were declared.
The local cadres are now looking at Utpal, elder son of Parrikar, to recover what it has lost.
A close analysis of the votes polled by BJP North Goa candidate Shripad Naik and by-election candidate Sidharth Kuncalienker in Panjim shows that while Naik got a lead of 2284 votes against Congress’ Girish Chodankar; whereas Kuncalienker faced defeat at the hands of Monserrate with a losing margin of 1758 votes.
For the Lok Sabha election, 16,098 people came out to vote. There was an increase in the number of votes for the subsequent by-poll where a total of 16,961 votes were polled.
“Panjim seat was never of BJP. It was of Manohar Bhai. All this while, people from Panjim constituency voted for Bhai and not for BJP. Even in 2017, when Sidharth won, it was only because Bhai campaigned for him. BJP without Parrikar can never have a hold in Panjim,” said a senior BJP cadre from Panjim, while admitting that ‘only Utpal can help in gaining back BJP what it has lost’.
It can be seen from the figures. While Naik got 8910 votes in the constituency, Kuncalienker got only 6990 votes. On the other hand, Monserrate got a hold of over 8748 votes as against Chodankar who got only 6626 votes. If one had to compare the number of votes polled by Monserrate in the Assembly by-poll to that polled by Naik from Panjim constituency for the Lok Sabha elections, then Naik would come on top ahead of Monserrate by 162 votes.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Naik had polled 9785 votes against Congress’ then candidate Ravi Naik (4529 votes). In the 2017 Assembly election, Kuncalienker had received 7924 votes, while Monserrate, who had contested as Independent, had to settle with 6855 votes.
During the August by-elections, when Parrikar contested, his victory margin was over 4800 votes. While Parrikar had got 9862 votes, Congress’ then by-poll candidate Chodankar managed to get 5058 votes.
The party cadres feel that Utpal is the only option before them to get back its bastion in Panjim. “It is not about sympathy or legacy but it is all about Bhai. Utpal can be the face of BJP in Panjim after Bhai and this is the right time to promote him and make him work,” a senior member from Panjim BJP mandal said.
