PANAJI
It’s not ‘all’s well that ends well’ for newly re-elected Panaji MLA Atanasio Babush Monserrate, who perhaps sweated by the gallon in his contest against former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal, who gave an unexpectedly tough fight against the BJP’s official candidate.
Soon after he emerged from the counting centre in Panaji surrounded by his supporters, Monserrate breathed fire as he lashed out against BJP leaders as well as the party cadre in Panaji and Taleigao, who he accused of working for Utpal Parrikar and against his wife Jennifer Monserrate, the BJP’s candidate in Taleigao assembly constituency.
“I am telling you, I feel the BJP cadre has not accepted me in the party. I look at it that way. That is the reason. If he (Utpal) could get so many votes, it means the cadre shifted their votes to him. I can say only that the BJP leadership here did not manage to do damage control,” Monserrate said, after claiming a victory with a margin of 716 votes.
“Second thing, BJP workers there (Taleigao) also worked against Jennifer. To give you one insight. The president of the BJP women’s cell was sitting on the Congress table on the day of elections,” Monserrate said.
Monserrate who is known to flaunt his ‘control’ over Taleigao, Panaji and other constituencies in Tiswadi, said that he never expected the contest between him and Utpal to cut that close.
“I never expected this result... The BJP has not accepted me in the party. I joined BJP two years ago, but the BJP cadre has not accepted me in the party. The party did nothing from day one,” Monserrate said.
While Monserrate got 6531 votes, Utpal Parrikar got 5857 votes, with Congress’ Elvis Gomes notching up a mere 3,062 votes. Aam Aadmi Party’s Valmiki Naik got 760 votes.
Utpal on the other hand in a brief comment to the media described the contest against Monserrate as a “good fight”.
“As an Independent candidate it was a good fight, I thank the people. Satisfied with the fight but the result is little disappointing,” Parrikar said.
While Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that he would analyse the comments made by Monserrate later, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP’s Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis refused to celebrate the electoral loss of Utpal Parrikar, calling him a part of the BJP family.
“It was decided from day one that Babush Monserrate would win. We had full confidence. I would only say that I am happy that Babush Monserrate has won, but at the same time, I cannot celebrate the loss of Utpal because he is from our family,” Fadnavis said.
The senior BJP official also suggested that the party had not closed its doors on Utpal, despite his rebellion.
“We will decide what we can do about it in the future. If he had taken the right call, he would have been an MLA today,” Fadnavis said.
