CANACONA
The BJP lost the Khola ZP seat by a slim margin of just 52 votes after two tense rounds of recounting, but retained the Poinguinim ZP seat by a margin of 858 votes on Monday.
KHOLA
It was a three-cornered fight which eventually turned into tight battle between Congress candidate, Sumitra R Pagi, and BJP candidate, Tejal Pagi, with AAP candidate securing a meagre 249 votes.
Tejal Pagi could garner only a slim margin of 105 votes in the first of the two rounds of counting, conceding the lead to Congress candidate in Betul-Naqueri, but reclaiming the lead with a big margin in Khola and parts of Agonda.
BJP then got a shock by conceding a large margin of votes to the Congress in Shristhal and trailing by 49 votes when the second round of counting was completed.
Unconvinced, the BJP sought recounting of votes and after votes were recounted on first appeal, BJP’s loss increased to 50 votes. On a second appeal for recounting, the winning margin of the Congress candidate widened to 52 votes with Sumitra Pagi polling 5,103 votes and Tejal Pagi securing 5,051 votes. A dejected BJP team then silently left the counting hall.
There were jubilations in the Congress camp outside the counting hall, with Quepem MLA and Congress leader Altone D’Costa, garlanding the winning candidate Sumitra Pagi. Canacona Block Congress President Abel Borges, Congress leaders Janardhan Bhandari, Sanju Naik, and several other congressmen also assembled at the gate to congratulate Sumitra Pagi.
Pagi thanked the voters for electing her and pledged to work for the people of her ZP constituency.
POINGUINIM
The BJP overcame the Goa Forward Party-Congress alliance after its candidate Ajay (Ajit) Lolienkar defeated alliance candidate, Prashant Naik, to win the Poinguinim ZP constituency.
Counting began with the first round of 12 booths giving a slim lead of about 100 votes to Lolienkar, with Goa Forward Party-INC alliance candidate Prashant Naik closely behind.
By the second round, the lead widened to 891 votes and with 7 more booths remaining in the third round, the celebrations had already begun outside the hall with BJP supporters in celebratory mood.
The third round consisting of 7 booths, all from Gaondongrim, was completed and the lead however, reduced to some extent, with Lolienkar was declared winner by 858 votes to win the Poinguinim ZP seat.
By the end of the counting, Lolienkar secured 5,345 votes, followed by Prashant Naik (4,487), Rajesh Gaonkar (AAP “ 290), Umesh alias Daya Gaonkar (independent “ 1,403), Shailesh Pagui (independent -637), Vipin Prabhugaonkar (independent “ 446), and Diksha Pagi (independent “ 298).
Poinguinim ZP winner Ajay Pagi promised to work to fulfil his election promises of facilitating at least one crematorium in each of the villages, providing some shelter to the stray cattle to prevent road mishaps.
