The opposition Congress has wrested state capital Panaji from the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Goa assembly bypoll. The BJP had held the seat for 26 years.
Congress candidate Atanasio Monserrate was leading by more than one 1,600 votes after three rounds of counting.
The seat was vacated after the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who had represented the seat since 1994 barring a brief period when he was appointed the Union defence minister.
After two rounds of counting, Monserrate polled 6,307 votes as against the BJP’s Siddharth Kuncaliencar, who then stood at 5,147 votes. The final tally of votes isn’t immediately available.
Party supporters began celebrating outside the counting centre in Panaji after leads started pouring in after the second round of counting.
The BJP is leading in the Mapusa assembly constituency bypoll by a narrow margin of 28 votes after two rounds of counting, while in Mandrem the saffron party is leading by a margin of around 700 votes.
In Shiroda assembly bypoll, the BJP is trailing behind Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party’s (MGP) Deepak Dhavalikar by around 200 votes.
In the North Goa Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP is leading by more than 10,000 votes while in South Goa, the Congress is ahead by 8,000 votes.
Polling was held for four assembly by-elections and two Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
The two Lok Sabha seats may make little difference in the national equations but the four state assembly by-polls — one-tenth of the strength of the 40 member Goa assembly — could either strengthen the hand of the newly-chosen Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who took up from Manohar Parrikar who passed away earlier this year or sound the death knell of his government.
Four assembly constituencies went to the polls — Mandrem, Mapusa and Panaji in North Goa and Shiroda in South Goa. While elections in Mandrem and Shiroda were necessitated after the sitting MLAs — Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar respectively — defected from the Congress to the BJP, Mapusa and Panaji were necessitated after the sitting MLAs Francis D’Souza and Manohar Parrikar, who was the chief minister passed away earlier this year.
The ruling BJP currently has 14 members including the two MGP MLAs who recently merged their ‘faction’ with the BJP and enjoys the support of three MLAs of the Goa Forward Party and three independents who had campaigned on an anti-BJP platform but agreed to support the BJP on condition that Manohar Parrikar returns from Delhi, where he was Union Defence Minister, to be Goa’s Chief Minister.
The Congress was elected with 17 MLAs in 2017 but lost MLAs to the BJP after it failed to form the government and now has 14 MLAs. It also enjoys the support of one MLA each from the NCP and the MGP both of whom were with the ruling party prior to Parrikar’s passing.
The Congress is betting on winning at least three of the four by polls which will take its tally to 17 the figure it was initially given in 2017 which they hope will lure the BJP’s allies to switch sides.
The Goa Forward, a crucial kingmaker in the current equation, has remained non-committal to its future with the BJP after May 23 and has abstained from campaigning for the BJP in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
“Why did we support Parrikar because he had a vision for a new modern Goa to evolve. I don’t want to talk about a hypothetical situation neither do I want to speculate. Tomorrow if our time comes to sit in the opposition I am not the one to feel uncomfortable. I’m ready for anything. I’m ready for an election tomorrow. I’m ready to sit in the opposition tomorrow. I’m ready to continue in the government today and tomorrow also,” Sardesai said.
The BJP has also expressed confidence that it will sweep all the four by polls and the two Lok Sabha seats and that its government faced no threat after May 23.
“We will win all the seats 6-0. The mood is very positive and the feedback we have received has indicated this,” State president Vinay Tendulkar said.
First Published:
May 23, 2019 11:24 IST
Source: HindustanTimes