MAPUSA
In its effort to win over public trust and gain acceptance among the voters, Congress had given the electorate three new faces in Bardez.
The party fielded its North Goa District president Amarnath Panjiker from Aldona, long time sarpanch, Joseph Sequeira from Calangute and Congress Block president, Vijay Bhike in Mapusa.
Both Panjikar and Sequeira emerged runners up in their respective constituencies, while Bhike came in third in the lineup in Mapusa.
Panjikar polled a total of 4,949 votes while Sequeira bagged 7,311 votes. Bhike got 3,013 votes in Mapusa.
However, former tourism minister, Nilkant Halarnkar saved the blushes for the grand old party by winning from Tivim constituency.
But Halarnkar’s victory margin of 795 votes was nothing to cheer about in the constituency of Tivim
In 2012 Halarnkar contested on NCP ticket from Tivim and had lost to BJP’s Kiran Kandolkar in that election.
Joseph Sequeira refused to blame anyone for his defeat at the hustings and accepted the people’s verdict.
“I worked with true spirit. I do not want to blame anyone. I accept the people’s verdict,” Sequeira said.
Aldona candidate, Amarnath Panjiker said that the late declaration of his candidature by the party coupled with AAP’s candidature being declared very early worked against his prospects.
“My candidature was declared very late. Because of time constraint I couldn’t cover the whole constituency,” Panjiker said. “AAP’s early declaration of its candidate also impacted me,” he added.
He also said that MGP candidate, Mahesh Satelkar pulled more Congress votes than BJP votes. He said this was expected to happen.
“Satelkar was a Congressman and therefore he pulled most of the Congress votes,” he said.
