MARGAO
In the battle between the Baba and Babu for supremacy over Margao, Opposition leader Digambar Kamat maintained his stranglehold over the city’s migrant inhabited areas to register a landslide victory over BJP’s Manohar Ajgaonkar.
Kamat, as he is affectionately called by his workers as Baba, not only foiled all attempts made by the ruling party to storm migrant inhabited Moti Dongor, but re-established himself as a leader at the Azad Nagar basty, which has been rechristened as Babu Nagar after the name of Ajgaonkar.
While the Opposition leader had a free run across the constituency, giving him an unprecedented margin of 7,794 votes, Kamat successfully maintained his hold over the slum areas, long considered as his strongholds and where the BJP had come a cropper every election.
Many in the city’s political circles had believed in the run up to the polls that Ajgaonkar, with his rapport with the migrants over the years, will help the BJP storm Moti Dongor, Kamat’s borough over the years.
In fact, the battle for Moti Dongor turned out an one-sided battle with Kamat enjoying a free run. The BJP candidate was simply left stranded atop the hillock, putting up a pathetic show, despite making every attempt in the run up to the polls to make inroads in the area.
Kamat’s free run in 2022 only brought back to the fore BJP’s bitter memories around a decade and half ago during the 2005 by-polls, when the Moti Dongor had stood by the Opposition leader to scrape through the election.
Take the case of polling booth No. 2 at the government primary school, Moti Dongor (East Wing). It turned out a one-side affair for the simple reason that while Kamat polled around 645 vote, Ajgaonkar had to be content with a mere 63 votes, giving Kamat an unassailable lead of 582 votes.
Similar was the situation at booth No. 6, at the government primary school, Moti Dongor (West Wing). Here too, the Opposition leader maintained his stranglehold by polling 517 votes as against Ajgaonkar’s 125 votes.
At polling booth No. 7, at the office of Assistant engineer, Monte Hill, Kamat established his supremacy over the migrant inhabited colony. He went on to poll 604 votes, leaving Ajgaonkar stranded midway as he could poll only 69 votes at the booth, giving Kamat a huge lead of 535-vote lead.
In fact, Moti Dongor alone gave Kamat an unassailable lead of around 1,500 votes lead, which contributed towards the Opposition leader’s massive margin.
At the Babu Nagar near the ESI hospital, which was once considered Ajgaonkar’s stronghold, Kamat got the better of the BJP candidate, leaving him behind. Similarly, Kamat made deep inroads in the Cine Lata migrant area.
At other migrant areas located on the city’s southern side, on the other side of the railway tracks, Kamat maintained his hold over the areas of Sirvodem, Sarvodem, Pedda-Khareband, not giving any chance for the BJP candidate to come anywhere close to making inroads into the strongholds.
Incidentally, poll result statistics showed that Kamat had his way across the city this time round, giving him a landslide victory margin of 7,794 vote.
