North Goa result was morale boosting for the party
In Calangute, Porvorim, Panjim and Aldona AAP polled in 4 figures
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In Benaulim, it managed 1,089 votes without any organisation
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In its first ever election in Goa, the Aam Admi Party made a good mark in North Goa, a result it would keep close to heart and work to see that its poll fortunes change at the State assembly elections in 2017.
Constituency wise figures show that that Calangute, Porvorim, Panjim and Aldona are some of the areas in North Goa where AAP candidates have got into four figures along with Benaulim in the south. North Goa, as figures show, put up a much better show for AAP, contrary to expectations.
The votes polled by AAP are mostly in urban or highly urbanised areas where a lot of financially mobile middle and upper middle-class voters reside.
Surprisingly, Benaulim, which even party leaders admit hardly had any infrastructure the party polled 1,089 votes. This was the only constituency in South Goa where AAP touched four figures.
Areas like the capital city and where sitting MLA Manohar Parrikar, who is also the chief minister, saw AAP touch 1,207 votes, while in Porvorim where the seat is held by an independent MLA Rohan Khaunte it polled 1,167 votes.
In coastal Calangute, where Congress polled more votes than the BJP, AAP managed to get 911 votes while in neighbouring Saligao it managed 1,138.
Aldona, a long-time stronghold of Dayanand Narvekar, till he was trounced last time by BJP’s new face Glenn Tiklo, AAP managed to poll 1,112 votes.
Even in Priol where the Congress was fully routed polling 4,000-odd votes versus 17,000 of the BJP, AAP took 789 votes.
According to figures and analysts, it is the urban or largely urbanised; the educated but desperate and those looking for a change, options, different type of politics and politician that voted for the AAP.
Political analysts feel AAP has the potential to make a dent in the traditional Congress vote that includes upper-caste Hindu voters and Catholics that have either voted for the BJP in the past two elections or have largely stayed out. They feel AAP can be a threat to both the congress and the BJP in the coming years –provided it sticks together as a united force and creates awareness among voters about what it stands for.
“We got votes mostly from urban areas and not rural,” confirms Dr Dattaram Dessai, AAP’s unassuming North Goa candidate, adding that “those who voted for AAP are those who favoured true democracy or people’s rule.”
According to Dr Dessai, the biggest problem they faced was lack of time to meet people. Another problem was that the party did not have time to build a proper structure, or volunteer base. This thought was also echoed by south Goa AAP candidate Swati Kerkar.
“Voters from South Goa who are frustrated with both parties, fed up with the corrupt system voted for us,’’ says Swati.
Dr Dessai says that the message will be disseminated and Goa is a state where there is not much of a divide between the urban and rural populations.
