PANAJI
In its pre-poll survey on July 13, 2016, the leading Marathi daily had predicted a fractured mandate, with the Congress emerging as the single largest party with 16 seats, followed by BJP (13) and MGP (3), while independent and others would get 8 seats in the 40-member assembly.
When the survey was published, BJP leaders bluntly rejected the findings and even the Congress was not ready to accept that it would not secure a majority.
Then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had telephonically contacted Goan Varta to state that the findings were flawed and had insisted that the BJP would secure clear majority.
“In some constituencies, there is some unhappiness over some ministers and MLAs, but we have already done the damage control and so, there is no cause for fear. The Congress will not get the seats that you have predicted,” said Parrikar at the time.
The actual results of the February 4 polls proved Goan Varta right in almost all figures, with the Congress emerging as the single largest party with 17 seats, followed by BJP (13) and MGP (3).
The remaining nine seats were shared by Goa Forward Party (3), independents (3) and NCP (1).
Incidentally, Goa Forward had not been formed during Goan Varta’s survey and their seats were shown in the “Independents and others” category.
Such was the precision of Goan Varta’s survey, that it accurately predicted that BJP’s North Goa tally of 12 seats would come down to 8. Besides, Goan Varta had also accurately predicted that BJP’s presence in South Goa would come down from 9 to 5 seats.
Similarly, the paper had predicted that the Congress would increase its tally of 5 seats by one more in North Goa. In reality, Congress bagged two more seats and secured 7 seats in North Goa.
In South Goa, Goan Varta had said the Congress would bag six seats in addition to its four seats and this is exactly what had happened in the results of the assembly elections.
Goan Varta’s survey across all 40 Assembly constituencies was conducted by its team of correspondents under the guidance of its Chief Reporter Kishor Naik and Special Correspondent Pandurang Gaonkar. The team had based its findings from the responses of people from a cross section of society.
