The candidates engrossed during the counting of ballot papers at the Peddem sports complex on Monday.
MAPUSA
The BJP suffered a setback in Mapusa after its panel failed to cross the half way mark in the council election in Mapusa.
The BJP-backed Mapusa Development Front and the opposition-backed Mhapshekarancho Ekvott won nine wards each, while two wards were begged by the independents in the 20-member Mapusa Municipal Council.
Despite not able to get the majority, both the BJP and the opposition vowed to form the next council in Mapusa.
Incidentally, the two elected Independents – former vice-chairperson Prakash Bhivshet and ex-councillor Anand Bhaidkar – hold the key to form the new council.
In three wards – 1, 5 and 6 – the candidates of BJP were relegated to the third position while former councillor, Swapnil Shirodkar won by a narrow margin of 17 votes from Ward 15 against former vice-chairperson Vijeyta Naik.
The trend against the BJP was discernible when counting to 10 wards was taken up early Monday morning.
Early trends showed candidates of Mhapshekarancho Ekvott (ME) leading in Wards 5, 7, 13, 17 and 19 while a see-saw battle was witnessed in Wards 3, 11 and 15. The only saving grace for the BJP was in Ward 9 where former chairperson Ryan Braganza’s sister was leading by a big margin.
Finally, candidates of ME won in Wards 5, 7, 13, 17 and 19 while BJP’s Mapusa Development Front (MDF) triumphed in Wards 3, 9, 11 and 15. The independent candidate won in Ward 1.
The trend reversed in favour of MDF later in the afternoon where their candidates emerged victorious in Wards 2, 4, 10, 12 and 14 while candidates of ME won in Wards 6, 8, 16 and 18. Ward 20 was bagged by the Independent candidate.
The biggest upset for the BJP in the election was the loss of Manisha Kavlekar, wife of former chairperson, Rohan Kavlekar. The loss of Shriya Salgaonkar in Ward 13, which was represented by Joshua D’Souza in 2015 civic election also came as a shock to the BJP panel.
As expected, 13 new faces were elected to the Mapusa Municipal Council while seven former councillors got re-elected.
Besides former chairperson Sudhir Kandolkar and ex-vice-chairperson Prakash Bhivshet, former councillors, Shubangi Vaigankar, Sushant Harmalkar, Chandrashekar Benkar, Anand Bhaidkar and Swapnil Shirodkar were re-elected in the council.
Among the four former chairpersons who were in the fray, only Sudhir Kandolkar emerged triumphant. He defeated another former chairperson Rupa Bhakta. However, former chairpersons Michael Carrasco and Prabhakar Vernekar failed to click.
Former vice-chairperson Prakash Bhivshet won from Ward 20 as an independent candidate while two other ex-vice-chairpersons – Marlene De’Souza and Vijeyta Naik – failed to make it to the council.
While Marlene who has been serving as a councillor for the last three terms lost to a newbie but resourceful Vikas Arolkar by resounding margin, Vijeyta lost to outgoing councillor Swapnil Shirodkar by a narrow margin of 17 votes.
The Mapusa voters gave a mixed response to Family Raj, with the brother duo, Tarak and Vikash Arolkar, winning from Wards 7 and 8, while from the husband-wife pair Anand Bhaidkar won from Ward 1, while his wife and outgoing councillor Alpha Bhaidkar lost in Ward 2.
Similarly, both former chairperson Michael Carrasco and his daughter Nalisha Carrasco lost from Wards 4 and 3 respectively.
MDF’s candidate, Kayle Braganza from Ward 9 got the highest vote count of 722 votes, while Shree Bodgeshwar Development Front candidate Suhas Sakhalkar and Independent candidate, Kedar Kamat from Ward 14 polled the lowest votes of 12 each.
Recounting was taken up in two, Wards of 6 and 15, but made no difference in the final result.
