Former BJP Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar in Salcete.
MARGAO
Can Chief Minister Pramod Sawant do a repeat show for Pallavi Dempo in the three minority-dominated Assembly segments of Nuvem, Benaulim and Velim in the May 7 Lok Sabha what his predecessor late Manohar Parrikar had done for Narendra Sawaikar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls?
Strategic tie-ups with then alliance partners and mobilization of party workers had helped the BJP to poll the extra votes from the three minority dominated segments in the 2014 election.
Consider this. Perhaps for the first time in Lok Sabha electoral history, the BJP had polled impressive votes in Nuvem, Benaulim and Velim, which in the final analysis helped the saffron brigade to reduce the Congress’ margin in these segments.
Former MLA Mickky Pacheco had led the BJP campaign in Nuvem in the 2014, paving the way for the saffron party to poll over 5000 votes, 5,321 votes to be precise.
In neighbouring Benaulim segment too, the Lotus bloomed in a big way in the 2014 election, thanks to the hard work put in by then Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva, who organized corner meetings across the length and breadth of the constituency with BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar. BJP’s strategic moves paid rich dividends when Sawaikar ended his campaign in Benaulim by polling around 4,433 votes.
Similar strategy deployed by the saffron brigade in the Velim segment, another minority stronghold in Salcete taluka, saw the saffron party polling close to 5,000 votes, around 4,959 votes to be precise, taking the total number of votes polled by Sawaikar in these three segments to 14,713.
Incidentally, the BJP’s tally of votes in Nuvem, Benaulim and Velim slumped down to just 9,092 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, around 5,621 votes less that the votes polled in the 2014 LS polls, making a difference in the final tally.
