For any exam, one needs to prepare well in advance to ensure good results. Well this is one of the reasons why Vasco’s Godfather, Narayan Bandekar did not fire in the civic polls.19 official candidates from his panel had to bite the dust.
So why did Godfather Bandekar fail? One of the reasons was his pick of candidates for ‘Team Nana’. Firstly, it was the formation of team Nana. While Bandekar floated the idea of forming his panel six months before the elections, due to his deteriorating relationship with the BJP, in reality, he cobbled together a team barely before the elections. His one time protégé Carlos Almeida, worked smart and zeroed in on candidates keeping in mind the possible ward reservation possibilities, with ‘insider information’ as a ruling party MLA.
The Godfather’s sense of self importance also led to his downfall. His statement “I’m first and then the BJP”, weeks before the elections, actually galvanized the BJP forces in Mormugao.
BJP leaders from all levels had several close door meetings to condemn the statement and go on the offensive. BJP leaders then started coming to the port town, taking corner meetings to convince the voters that having BJP at the Municipal level is important because the BJP has its government at the state and centre, while Bandekar’s promises of stability and development with no organization to boot fell flat.
Another major factor responsible for the poor results for Nana, was the multiplying of ‘mini rebels’. Many candidates who had approached Nana before the elections but missed Nana’s blessing became rebels and therefore started working against the Nana blessed candidate. The BJP in turn benefited from this.
Next, a majority of candidates from the Nana panel were new, out of which about 8 or 9 candidates were those without any experience of the social field, municipal affairs and even elections. Similarly, many of his candidates (few selected out of nana’s wishes) were expecting much more from Nana than his blessings. Few reportedly were waiting for him to come for door to door campaigning in their wards while they forgot to put in extra effort to ensure their own victory.
The result was clear. The BJP won 14 out of 20 wards in the council. Nana Bandekar on the other hand, managed to get barely five of his candidates elected. He also claims that 3 of the independent candidates were also backed by him.
Meanwhile, a new local force has emerged in Vasco. Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida became the new kingmaker of the port town. The same MLA did not have a single councillor from his team but now half of 8 BJP backed councillors from the wards in Vasco constituency are loyal to him.
Meanwhile, having elected 19 new faces in the new council, the people of the port town proved that they wanted a change in the MMC and were not happy with the functioning of the former council.
