PONDA: With a fierce battle against Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Congress, BJP’s Lotus managed to blossom in Ponda Constituency for the first time and in Priol Constituency after 15 years. But there was no change in the MLAs’ victory.
In case of Shiroda and Marcaim, Subash Shirodkar of BJP and Sudin Dhavalikar of MGP were leading till they won their respective seats.
However, in case of Ponda and Priol, it was an exciting battle for the voters, who could not know what will happen until the final round, and finally unexpected happened.
MGP’s Dr Ketan Bhatikar had taken lead in the every first round of vote counting while Rajesh Verenkar of Congress was on a second position and Ravi Naik at third place. However, in final round Ravi took the lead over Dr Bhatikar and Verenkar, which was almost like hitting a six at the last ball to win the game and thus Lotus blooming for the first time in Ponda.
Earlier, the BJP had never won the Ponda seat and this is for the first time after Congress MLA resigned and joined the party to contest seat on a BJP ticket.
Similar was the case with MGP-BJP battle at Priol, where winning candidate Govind Gaude also maintained a record of winning for the second consecutive time.
This battle was exciting too. Deepak Dhavalikar too was leading. However, in final the round, BJP’s Gaude managed to get lead and claim victory. Gaude also maintained the record of winning the seat twice in Priol Constituency.
Ever since the formation of Priol Constituency in 1994, for the first time, Dr Kashinath Zalmi won for the two consecutive terms, then Adv Vishwas Satarkar. Later, MGP’s Deepak twice and now Govind Gaude won for the second time. First time, he won as an Independent and for the second time contested on a BJP ticket. There is tradition at Priol to elect one person only twice. So far, strangely those who have contested for the third time had lost Assembly elections at Priol.
Marcaim MLA Sudin Dhavalikar won the seat but could not manage to maintain the highest winning margin. He had won 2017 Assembly elections with record winning margin of 13,680 votes. However, in 2022 elections, his margin was 9,963 votes, which means, the voting margin has reduced this time by 3,777 votes as there were several candidates in fray.
First timers, Revolutionary Goans did well in securing the third highest votes in Shiroda with Shailesh Naik securing 5,102 votes and Premanand Gaude bagging 3,529 votes in Marcaim.
Similarly, did well by securing sizeable votes in Priol, with Vishwesh Naik getting 2,517 votes and Sanish Tilve 1195 votes in Ponda.
