TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s Panjim constituency and BJP legislator Vishnu Wagh’s St Andre constituency recorded the lowest turnout among all constituencies in the north Goa parliamentary elections on April 12. Incidentally, these two assembly constituencies had recorded the lowest voter turnout even during the March 2012 assembly elections in the north Goa district.
Data from the Chief Electoral Office (CEO) revealed that St Andre which has total 21,226 voters, recoded 72.07 per cent turnout while the Panjim with 21, 928 voters recorded 73.27 per cent voting. The two constituencies had recorded 55 and 56 per cent turnout, respectively, during the 2009 Lok Sabha election.
For the 2012 assembly election, over 79 per cent voters came out to cast their vote in St Andre giving clear majority to BJP’s Vishnu Wagh. On the other hand, Manohar Parrikar dominated Panjim for last four terms, when there was 77 per cent voting.
Both, the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections witnessed historical turnout of voters with over 82 per cent and 76 per cent voting. For both the elections, mining rich Sakhalim constituency saw record turnout voters while coastal Benaulim was the lowest.
No specific reasons can be attributed for the lower turnout in St Andre and Panjim. However, there is talk of lack of candidates reaching out to the Panjim electorate which made them uninterested to come out and vote in large numbers. While BJP candidate Shripad Naik and GDF’s Dayanand Narvekar did not campaign in Panjim, Congress candidate Ravi Naik and AAP’s candidate Dattaram Desai spent a day each here.
Soon after casting his vote, the chief minister was on record to say that Panjim will see the highest turnout of over 80 per cent.
In St Andre, voters who gave majority to BJP were upset with the party after the attack on their local MLA and the treatment meted out to him. Wagh, who was out of the election campaign due to ill health, came out to woo voters just two days before polling. But it appears that Congress at present does not have much support in St Andre.
