PANAJI
Congress leadership on Thursday blamed their dismal performance on the split in vote among the Opposition. The party's senior observer for Goa polls P Chidambaram said that while the people of Goa wanted a change, their votes were split amongst the Opposition.
"We accept the verdict of the people of Goa. Our candidates fought a good election, fought bravely, fought against several obstacles and 11 of our candidates and one of our ally Goa Forward party won one seat. People have voted the BJP to power and we accept that and we wish the people of Goa very well," Chidambaram told a press conference in Panaji.
Chidambaram went on to give a detailed explanation to underline the importance of a split in the opposition in the victory of the BJP, which has won 20 seats in the 40 member state assembly, where 21 is the magic number. The BJP is already in talks with winning independent candidates as well as the MGP to make up for the minor shortfall in the required numbers.
"The first thing that is very clear is the people of Goa wanted a change but in their voting behaviour they could not bring about a change. I say this because the winning party the BJP got only a little over 33 percent of the vote. The overwhelming majority voted against the BJP but those votes were split across many parties which gave the BJP the opportunity to win 20 seats," Chidambaram said.
"Although we communicated the message that if you want change, vote for the Congress do not split the votes among other parties, we accept that message was perhaps not communicated as effectively as it should have," he said.
Chidambaram also had a word of praise for the young candidates (more than 70 percent of the Congress candidates were fresh faces) fielded by the Congress.
"These young clean, educated candidates, many of whom were contesting for the first time, put up a splendid performance. We are disappointed they lost. We have told them that this is the best opportunity for you to stay firmly with the party, build the party and begin the fight for the next election from tomorrow. And many of them will begin the fight for the next election from tomorrow," Chidambaram said.
