PANJIM: The people of Goa have routed the turncoat MLAs of Goa by either reducing their leads to a negligible figure or not giving them a lead at all. The Lok Sabha election results have showcased the anger of Goans against defection and the take-voters-for-granted attitude of the politicians across Goa.
The turncoat MLAs have failed the test as MLA Digambar Kamat, Minister Aleixo Sequeira, MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, MLA Michael Lobo, MLA Rudolfo Fernandes and others have not managed to secure a major lead for the BJP in their constituencies.
Digambar Kamat faced immense criticism for the nominal lead that the BJP candidate managed to eke out in the Margao constituency. Kamat was on record claiming that BJP candidate Pallavi Dempo would get a lead of 7,000 to 8,000 votes in Margao. However, Kamat, virtually without any opposition in Margao, only managed to get 11,474 votes against 10,151 of the Congress which sums up to a lead of 1,323 votes for Dempo. After the results, Kamat said, “I accept the fact that the results are not what I thought, and I will introspect”.
The biggest shocker came in Nuvem. Environment Minister in the BJP Government Aleixo Sequeira who went on to claim that he will give the biggest lead to the BJP will in fact have a lot to answer. The BJP candidate managed to secure only 2,677 votes in Nuvem against a massive 16,365 votes that the Congress got, giving them a comfortable lead of 13,688 votes.
Even Curtorim gave a massive lead to the INDIA alliance, and the presence of an MLA who supports the BJP does not seem to have helped.
Though the election was predictable in the North Goa seat the MLA Michael Lobo failed to give a lead to the BJP in Calangute. BJP candidate Shripad Naik secured 7,482 votes while Ramakant Khalap of the INDIA Alliance got a 2,157 lead, summing up to 9639 votes. Lobo says, “I informed the party that there are too many leaders in each constituency and there will be confusion regarding
Even Delilah Lobo has managed to secure a little over 2,000 votes for BJP in Siolim.
St Cruz also was not an exception. The constituency gave a lead to the Congress despite MLA Rudolfo Fernandes joining BJP. BJP got 8,472 votes while INDIA Alliance got 10,688 votes giving a lead of 2,216 votes to Khalap.
Political analysts and top sources from the BJP have said that this was a testing time for many of the turncoats as well as other MLAs and would decide their future. The ones who have failed the test have a lot to worry about.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said “We agree that even after having MLAs with us we got a lesser margin. But
it is a fact that at all times all the voters do not follow the leader when he joins a political party” he said.
BJP President Sadanand Tanawade said, “We have fallen short in garnering votes in the constituencies that we were expecting to get votes.”
