CANACONA: Although the Bharatiya Janata Party got a lead in Canacona assembly constituency at the Lok Sabha elections, it was 50 per cent short of the lead promised by local MLA and Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar.
Claiming that the lone municipal council and all five village panchayats were with the BJP, Tawadkar had asserted that the BJP Lok Sabha party candidate Pallavi Dempo would take a lead of 15,000 votes in the taluka.
However, the BJP polled 16,106 votes and the lead was only 7,132 votes, which was just half of what was projected.
Canacona has 59 polling booths and INDIA Bloc led in only 11 of them with the BJP scoring over it in the other 48 booths.
While the Congress candidate did not poll much votes in Gaondongrim and Cotigao panchayat areas, what is surprising is that in areas that were said to be strongholds of the BJP like Mudkud and Jiltawadi, the difference in votes of the two main candidates was marginal.
Incidentally, Ramesh Tawadkar who projects himself as a leader of the Scheduled Tribe community has fared poorly when compared to other ST leaders of the BJP like Govind Gaude and Ganesh Gaonkar.
Govind Gaude who is the Minister for Art and Culture got the BJP a lead of over 12,000 votes in his Priol constituency, while Ganesh Gaonkar gave the party candidate a lead of nearly 10,000 in Sanvordem constituency and Ramesh Tawadkar could give a lead of barely 7,000 in Canacona constituency.
“Tawadkar has now become weak as seen that even Loliem has not voted with him,” quipped Goa Forward Party leader Prashant Naik who was supposed to contest from Canacona at the last assembly elections and canvassed extensively for Capt Viriato at these elections.
At the Assembly elections held on February 14, 2022, Congress candidate Janardhan Bhandari polled 5500 votes and Revolutionary Goans Party polled 1,599 votes while the other 22,000 votes were divided between Ramesh Tawadkar, Isidore Fernandes and Vijay Pai Khot.
Given the fact that the last named three are now with the BJP, its candidate at the Lok Sabha elections should have got around 22,000 votes, which did not happen.
