PANJIM: Elections 2019 have raised questions of existence for two parties, AAP and GSM who despite tall claims have been diminished further in their vote counts. AAP which contested three bypolls, Panjim, Mapusa and Shiroda, collectively received 909 votes including 436 votes by Valmiki Naik in Panjim, Shekhar Naik receiving 242 votes in Mapusa and 231 votes to Yogesh Khandeparkar in Shiroda. In Mapusa and Shiroda the number of NOTA votes polled is more than the AAP candidates at 282 and 304 respectively.
AAP face in Goa since its inception and later its candidate in the Goa Assembly elections in 2017, Valmiki, incidentally had polled 1944 votes in the 2017 Assembly elections. Reacting to the results, he said, “Despite the electoral setback today, our morale remains higher than ever. We fought hard, we fought honestly, and we fought against all odds. We will only work harder now to give the voters confidence in AAP in the next election.”
In the LS polls, Pradeep Padgaonkar, who contested the North Goa seat received around 1 percent of the total polled votes a 4756. AAP Goa convenor Elvis Gomes received 20891votes which around 5 percent of the total votes polled. Both had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls in 2017.
Meanwhile, GSM which rode on the language issue and began its campaign against late Manohar Parrikar has also performed miserably with the face, patron and founder of the organisation Subhash Velingkar polling only 516 votes in the Panjim bypolls. GSM candidates in other three bypoll constituencies too received meagre voe share with Nandan Sawant in Mapusa getting only 277 votes, Swarup Naik in Mandrem polling 615 votes and Santosh Satarkar getting only 283 votes in Shiroda.
