QUEPEM
Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar had been the leader of the 10-member group of Congress MLAs to defect to the BJP and a four-time MLA of Quepem, but all his political credentials could not secure him a fifth term in power and he was defeated by Altone D’Costa, a new face from the Congress.
While D’Costa polled 14,994 votes and won with a comfortable lead of 3,600 votes, Kavlekar secured 11,393 votes.
Although there were six candidates in the fray for the Quepem seat, only the Revolutionary Goans candidate managed to cross the four-figure mark with 1,144 votes, securing the third position, with poor performances from TMC (161), Shiv Sena (66) and AAP (315).
The turning point for the Congress was a lead of 2,060 votes in Quepem municipality, which was dominated by Kavlekar in the last four elections. D’Costa polled 5,354 votes while Kavlekar secured 3,294 votes. Incidentally, 9 of the 13 Quepem councillors had been backed by Kavlekar.
Quepem municipality has always played an important role in electing MLA, which is dominated by the Christian community, and they have traditionally supported Congress candidates since the last eight elections.
Quepem is a Hindu dominated constituency, but due to anti-incumbency and the recent defection from Congress, there was a wave in support of the minority Christian candidate from Congress.
D’Costa, a hotelier and a new entrant in politics, had a hold in Fatorpa panchayat as his younger brother Sanzil was sarpanch in his last tenure.
Even though Kavlekar had full control of seven panchayats, he managed to maintain a lead of 518 votes in only Barcem Panchayat. Kavlekar polled 2,158 votes, while D’Costa got 1,640 votes.
D’Costa, however, took a lead in the remaining 6 panchayats of Avedem, Balli, Morpirla, Fatorpa, Khola, Betul and Quepem municipality.
Prashant Velip, a panch from Barcem panchayat and youth Congress leader, said the people had voted for a change.
“Kavlekar took advantage of our backward communities, but failed to address the problems faced by villagers,” said Velip.
Even though Kavlekar managed to get the support of former MLA Prakash Velip, most from the Velip community, who were always behind Velip for the last many elections, voted in favour of the Congress candidate. Velip had lost to Kavlekar in the last assembly elections.
