Led where he was supposed to and where he was less likely to Fading Cong poster boys, the Ranes couldn’t give lead in their own seats
The Monserattes went the Rane way, as BJP led in St Cruz and Taleigao
Ravi Naik decimated everywhere, but specially in ‘home’ areas of Mayem and Priol, behind by over 10,000 votes in both
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: He is on the verge of becoming the grand old man of BJP’s parliamentary politics of Goa. But of all the times he has won, his innings number four will be remembered as one of total power, no dropped catches and steady strokes.
Let’s do a reality check here. The margin of victory is so, so huge, that if this was cricket match, the ever suspicious might well have said that the match was fixed. Ravi Naik, the “candidate” worked and fared like a sitting duck, losing everywhere with a mere squeak in Calangute where he led by 115 votes, making the assembly constituency-wise result in the 20 North Goa seats read 19-1.
In the sure shot seats of the absolute North Mandrem, Pernem, Bicholim, Tivim, Mapusa and Siolim, the BJP got close to 84,000 votes, leading by an average of 10,000 votes in these seats. In the not so sure ones, like those in the kingdom of the Rane’s, Poriem, Sanquelim and Valpoi, Shripad Naik got around 37,000 votes. While the lead in these came mainly from Sanquelim. Shripad Naik nosed ahead by 1100 and 700 odd votes in Poriem and Valpoi. Well the Rane bastion had almost fallen in 2012, but the fall was signposted in these elections.
In the first round, Shripad Naik polled 22,845 votes to Ravi’s 13,205 out of the 38,766 votes polled. AAP’s Dattaram Dessai was the next with 1200-odd votes. After this Naik pulled completely away from the pack.
According to Mr Naik he was expecting to win by 60,000 votes way short of his 1,05, 022 margin.
So strong was the BJP dominance that Ravi Naik was actually crushed in Mayem where he claims to have some influence, given the Bhandari caste equation, where he trailed by over 10,000 votes and in Priol where he was down by 13,000 votes.
Unlike in South Goa, where the Congress had takeaways from several pockets, Ravi Naik and the Congress (and not necessarily together) will be left looking at the scattered debris of destruction to see one morsel of hope. They will find none.
