Party is banking heavily on minority heartland to reach magical figure of 13
MARGAO
The fate of the Congress campaign in a bid to regain the South Goa Zilla Panchayat seats will be known in round one of counting of the eight ZP seats of Salcete taluka.
Banking heavily on the minority heartland to reach the magic figure of 13 seats, with as many as eight seats at stake in Salcete, the Congress must be certainly hoping against hope that round one rings in good news for the party in the constituencies of Davorlim and Raia, where the party is believed to have fought the election with its back to the wall.
In Davorlim, the BJP camp was in an upbeat mode with sitting ZP member Ulhas Tuemkar exuding confidence of retaining the seat. Comparatively, despondency has hit the Congress camp as a split in the secular vote has turned real, with as many as five candidates vying for the anti-BJP vote.
Similarly, the Congress was locked in a fierce battle against a formidable Independent candidate Domnick Gaonkar for the Raia seat. The Congress was expecting the voters from Raia to come out in large numbers and vote for the party candidate Joseph Vaz. As it turned out, Raia ZP constituency has reported the lowest voter percentage, around 37 per cent to be precise.
Independent candidate, Domnick Gaonkar exuded confidence of maintaining his stranglehold over Raia by a comfortable margin. Domnick had twice represented the Raia seat, before his wife got elected to the ZP during the last term.
Election officials pointed out that the counting of votes of Davorlim and Raia will be followed by the counting of votes of the crucial seats of Guirdolim and Nuvem.
Congress leaders say that the party will win both the Guirdolim and Nuvem seats, pointing out that these seats have been the traditional voter-base of the party.
However, Congress-turned-BJP MLAs Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar and Clafacio Dias in Guirdolim and MLA Wilfred D’Sa in Nuvem, seemed to have not left a single stone unturned to upset Congress’ poll calculations in both Guirdolim and Nuvem.
The third round will see counting of votes of Curtorim and Colva constituencies, where again the Congress must be anxiously hoping for a turnaround and change the party fortunes in its bid to regain the South Goa seat. While reports suggest that the Congress may have a smooth sailing in Curtorim seat, the party is locked in a battle with the NCP for Colva.
Election officials pointed out that counting of votes of Benaulim constituency will be taken up last, which will be preceded by counting of votes of Velim constituency.
While the election officials said that it may take around two hours to complete counting of one ZP seat, sources said the entire exercise may come to an end by 5 pm on Monday evening.
