Team Herald
PANJIM: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the bypolls in four constituencies with a 3-1 scoreline and drew 1-1 in the Lok Sabha elections, but more importantly failed to win in Panjim, their stronghold for 25 years. Since 1994, Panjim was with BJP and more particularly with former chief minister late Manohar Parrikar.
In South Goa, Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha, as expected, won by a margin of around 9,391 votes. Sardinha with 2,01,561 votes defeated BJP’s sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar who got 1,91,806.
AAP’s Elvis Gomes secured 20,891, while NOTA finished fourth with 5,436 votes. Shiv Sena’s Rakhi Amit Naik polled 1,763, Dr Kalidas Vaingankar bagged 1,413 and Mayur Khankonkar got 1,705 votes,
In North Goa at the time of going to press, BJP’s four-time sitting MP and AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik was leading by over 80247 votes. Congress’ Girish Chodankar had polled 1,08,693 and Shripad Naik polled 1,53,925 at the end of round 8.
Babush shocks BJP
For BJP the day begun with some bad news as Sidharth Kuncalienker went down to Congress’ Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate by 1,758 votes. Monserrate secured 8,748 votes while Kucalienker managed 6,990, Former Goa RSS chief and GSM’s Subash Velingkar polled 516 votes. Valmiki Naik of AAP bagged 436, NOTA got 202 and Dilip Ghadi 13 and Vijay More 13.
Monserrate’s victory was significant as he managed a margin of over 1,700 votes despite Velingkar not damaging BJP. The Panjim bypoll, was necessited following the demise of Manohar Parrikar.
Shirodkar wins
by a whisker
The first bit of good news for BJP came from Shiroda where their candidate Subhash Shirodkar, who had defected from the Congress, won by a slender margin of 76 votes.
His opponent MGP’s Pandurang (Deepak) Dhavalikar sought a re-count, but this did not help him. Shirodkar polled 10,661, followed by Dhavalikar with 10,585. Congress’ Mahadev Naik put up a poor display with just 2,402 votes and AAP’s Khandeparkar bagged 231 votes. It was nail-biting finish in Shiroda, but Shirodkar pulled it off in the end.
Joshua keeps the legacy going
Though the margin of victory was less, former deputy chief minister late Francis D’Souza’s son Joshua continued his father’s legacy by defeating his rival Congress candidate Sudhir Kandolkar by 1,151 votes. Joshua polled 11,167 votes while Kandolkar fought hard earning 10,016 votes in a neck-and-neck fight till the end.
Independent Ashish Shirodkar (504), NCP’s Sanjay Barde bagged 200 votes. NOTA finished fifth with 282 votes. Narsinha Sawant of GSM bagged 279 and Shekhar Naik (243), Sudesh Hasotikar (42) were other contenders.
Sopte continues his reign in Mandrem
In Mandrem, another defector, BJP candidate Dayanand Sopte defeated Independent Jit Arolkar by 3,943 votes. Sopte polled 13,168 votes as against Arolkar’s 9,225. Congress’ Babi Bagkar finished third with 4,221 votes. GSM’s Swarup Jaidev Naik polled 615 votes while 444 voters opted for NOTA.
