PANAJI
Congress has failed to impress, yet again with the party facing another round of drubbing in the just-held Zilla Panchayat by-elections.
The disappointing performance comes ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls even as its leaders have been harping over the party’s revival following a series of election defeats.
The ZP’s vote share clearly shows Congress candidates could not give a tough fight to comparatively new political outfits -- Aam Aadmi Party and Revolutionary Goans.
In Davorlim, BJP candidate Paresh Naik won with 4080 votes while AAP candidate Siddesh Bhagat polled 3374 votes and Congress candidate Leoncio Fernandes Raikar fell to the third position with 1089 votes.
In Reis Magos and Cortalim too, the Congress failed miserably to pose a challenge to its competitors. In Reis Magos where BJP’s Sandeep Bandodkar won with 5345 votes, Independent candidates Sainath Korgaonkar and Rajesh Dabholkar polled 1101 and 1091 votes respectively whereas Congress candidate Pragati Pednekar stood fourth with 509 votes.
Independent candidate Merciana Vas, backed by the BJP polled 4453 votes against RGP-backed Independent candidate Leslie Gama who secured 1511 votes. Congress’ poor performance continued as Valent Barbosa came third with 1360 votes.
Interestingly none from Congress top brass released a media statement accepting their defeat. On the other hand, the winning ZP members, accompanied by BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade and other senior leaders, met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at his official residence on Tuesday evening to celebrate their victory.
Congress has been registering defeat be it the assembly elections or local body. Adding to its woes, majority of its winning candidates switched their loyalty to the BJP with the recent defection comprising eight MLAs led by Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo.
