Even though Margao recorded the lowest voter turnout compared to all the municipalities that went to polls last week, Herald takes a closer look at the vote share across the three constituencies of Margao with 11 wards, Fatorda with 11 wards and Curtorim with 3 wards and how the political players fared in the elections. Excluding the votes polled by independents, in Fatorda constituency the 11 elected candidates backed by Vijai Sardesai won a total of 8516 votes. Comparatively, the total number of votes polled by the candidates filed by the BJP and including the independent candidate they supported pulled in 6123 votes.
Similarly, in Margao constituency, the 11 candidates backed by Digambar Kamat that include the six who won; managed to get a combined total of 7332 votes. Likewise, the BJP who fielded 11 candidates and two got elected including former assembly contestant Rupesh Mhatme , together secured a total of 5188 votes. The three wards where independents won turned out to be shockers for both the BJP and Congress with BJP rebel candidate Suchita Malkarnekar who won with 530 votes in ward 12, former two time chairperson Arthur D’silva who won with 624 votes. In ward 14, Damodar Naik won with 548.
Across the three wards in Curtorim, ,the BJP managed to win 2 seats and win a total number of 2107 votes while the sitting husband and wife two councillors were defeated winning a combined tally of 880 votes. While Sardesai’s backed losing candidate Ventakesh Raut Desai polled in 531 votes from ward 23, in ward 25, independent candidate Kutubuddin Bhagewadi won with 450 votes and has since extended support to the ruling majority.
Only the BJP party filed candidates in all 24 wards and supported one candidate in the total 25 wards and won 4 seats only. The Congress left Margao MLA Digambar Kamat to fend for himself and was non-existent in fatorda where Sardesai sweeped all the seats and Curtorim MLA, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco did not field any candidate.
