MARGAO
The BJP scored a hattrick of sorts in Davorlim retaining the Zilla Panchayat seat with ease as party candidate Paresh Naik emerged victorious in the by-poll on Tuesday.
The election result saw the Congress being virtually decimated with the main opposition relegated to the third position. The result also witnessed the rise of AAP with the party finishing a close second behind the BJP.
A couple of Independents -- Andrew Rebello and Murtuza Kuknoor -- also put up a commendable show, polling impressive votes, which political observers say has cut into the votes of the non-BJP players including Congress and the AAP.
While BJP's Paresh Naik romped home by polling 4,080 votes, his main AAP challenger Siddesh Bhagat finished a close second polling 3,374 votes, giving the BJP nominee a victory with a margin of 706 votes.
Congress candidate Leon Raikar finished a poor third by managing to cross the four-figure mark, finishing with 1,089 votes. The two Independent candidates Andrew Rebello and Murtuza Kuknoor ended their campaigns with 784 and 560 votes, respectively.
Congress put up a poor show as evidenced by the statistics. Of the three counting rounds, the Congress was relegated to the fourth position in the first round itself after the AAP, BJP and Independent candidate Muturza Kuknoor finished first, second and third position, respectively. The Congress candidate managed to make a comeback in the remaining two rounds before Raikar was stranded.
Incidentally, round one of counting had gone in favour of AAP, with candidate Sidhesh Bhagat leading over BJP by 31 votes. In the round, votes from the Rumdamol housing Board were taken up for counting.
The BJP, however, covered the lost ground in the next two rounds, where votes from the villages of Davorlim, Dicarpale and Aquem-Baixo were taken up for counting before the party romped home with a margin of 706 votes. However, unlike the 2020 ZP election, where party candidate Ulhas Tuenkar won by a margin of 1,593 votes, the BJP’s margin of victory has come down to 706, even though the party vote has crossed the 4,000 figure this time round as against 3,610 votes polled by Tuenkar in 2020.
BJP replays 2020 show
MARGAO:
Attribute it to the poll management or otherwise, the BJP has repeated the 2020 feat in the Davorlim ZP constituency, capitalising on the split in the non-BJP vote, to outwit the other contestants in the fray and ensuring the party flag flies high in the constituency.
Poll statistics pointed out that the presence of multiple candidates in the fray seemed to have gone in favour of the BJP.
A close look at the results showed that the BJP would have faced a tough battle to retain the seat in the event of a straight fight. A vertical division of the non-BJP votes amongst many players, however, seemed to have gone to BJP’s advantage once again.
Consider this: The victorious BJP candidate Paresh Naik won the by-poll polling 4,080 votes. On the other hand, the non-BJP votes were split among the remaining six players.
The tally of votes polled by the non-BJP candidates worked out around 5,807, as against the BJP’s tally of 4,080 votes. While AAP's Siddesh Bhagat polled 3,374 votes, Congress’ Leon Raikar polled 1,089 votes, and independents Andrew Rebello (784), Murtuza Kuknoor (560) Jose Agnelo Dias (78) and Bhagwan Redkar, who had withdrawn from the fray in favour of the BJP nominee, poling 66 votes.
In the 2020 ZP poll for Davorlim, then-ZP member Ulhas Tuenkar won with an easy victory in a six-cornered fight that virtually saw the split in the non-BJP vote.
While Ulhas had then polled 3,610 votes, the non-BJP vote was split among as many as four candidates, including Congress candidate Murtuza Kuknoor. While Murtuza polled 2,017 votes, Abdul Kadir (1,332), Floriano Fernandes (1,097) and Socorro Gomes (1,463) were the other candidates, who together polled around 5,500-plus votes, benefiting the BJP candidate, who retained the seat by a margin of 1,593.
AAP rises and Cong falls
MARGAO:
The Davorlim byelection result has thrown up a new political equation – the rise of the AAP and the fall of the Congress in the constituency, which is part of the Navelim Assembly constituency, a Congress stronghold over the years.
If AAP had surprised political observers by opening its account in Goa in the 2020 ZP poll by winning the Benaulim seat, before wresting Benaulim in the 2022 Assembly election, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had almost repeated the feat in the Davorlim by-poll.
AAP might have finished a close second behind the BJP, but the party has displaced the Congress to the third position, which has been the stronghold of the grand old party over the years.
AAP’s rise in a ZP constituency, which plays host to a significant presence of minorities should cause worry in the Congress camp. For, AAP seemed to have made inroads in the minority-dominated areas of the constituency, as evidenced by the fact that party candidate Sidesh Bhagat led over the BJP in round one of counting.
Political observers say there appears a shift of the Congress's traditional voters amongst the Muslims and Catholics to AAP, catapulting the party to the second place and relegating the Congress to the poor third.
The poll statistics showed that while AAP finished with 3,374 votes, Congress struggled midway, before barely managing to cross the 1000-vote mark, before ending his campaign with 1,089.
AAP’s splendid show in the Davorlim should ring in good news for the party poll managers handling the Navelim constituency. For, the party, which had made a determined bid to wrest Navelim in the 2022 Assembly polls, could not achieve the feat, since the party could not make deep inroads in the villages of Rumdamol, Davorlim and Aquem-Baixo, which make up the Davorlim ZP constituency.
Paresh attributes win to hard work of workers, support of BJP leaders
MARGAO:
Victorious BJP candidate Paresh Naik has attributed his win in the Davorlim by-poll to the hard work put in by the workers and the support of the party leaders.
In fact, Paresh told the media that people from all religious communities voted for him. He has promised to take up human development in the constituency, apart from infrastructure development.
“The booth-level workers and members of the frontal organisation and the entire BJP team of Navelim toiled hard on the ground for my victory. Party leaders right from Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to president Sadanand Tanavade, Navelim MLA Ulhas Tuenkar, to former deputy CM Manohar Ajgoankar to Digambar Kamat had all extended their support to my candidature,” he said.
He added: “This is the victory of the workers and the leaders. I thank all the voters from all communities who have cast their votes to get me elected.”
Govt instrumental in raising ZP funds: Navelim MLA
MARGAO:
Navelim BJP MLA Ulhas Tuenkar said the BJP government is instrumental in increasing the funds for the Zilla Panchayats.
He said that the government has sanctioned crores of rupees of funds for the ZPs in the last five years when the district panchayats were struggling to get the bare minimum.
After the BJP retained the Davorlim seat in the by-poll, which has been necessitated following his election to the Legislative Assembly in the 2022 election, MLA Tuenkar said a ZP constituency used to get around Rs five lakh development grant in the past, which has now increased to Rs 40 lakh. “We are witnessing changes to the funding for the ZPs in the last five years. In the last Assembly session, I had raised the question of increasing the honorarium of the ZP members since they also represent several villages,” he said.
Commenting on the Davorlim result, Tuemkar said that people have voted for a party which has ushered in the development of the State.
Party took beating as hardcore voters played truant: Congress candidate
MARGAO:
Congress Davorlim ZP candidate Leon Raikar has said that the Congress took a beating in the ZP by-poll primarily because the hardcore party voters did not turn up for polling and that majority of the party’s traditional voter base amongst the Muslims have shifted towards AAP.
Raikar further said his decision to quit the TMC to contest the by-poll on the Congress banner did not help him in any way. “The Congress votes did not come to me. I do not know why the Congress workers did not turn up, whether they were unhappy over the recent political developments in the State,” he said.
"The AAP has pocked the major share of the Muslim vote, especially in Davorlim and Rumdamol Housing Board area. I have been told that AAP leaders from outside the State had some meetings with the Muslim leaders from Davorlim and Rumdamol. All these factors have seen a shift of the majority of the Muslim vote to the AAP,” he said.
Asked whether he had received any support from the Goa Congress leaders for his campaign, Leon said leaders such as South Goa district Congress president Savio D’Silva and veteran Congressman M K Sheikh had canvassed for his candidature.
