the goan I network
PANAJI
The day has finally come. Bombarded with campaign rhetoric over the last couple of months since election season began, the 22,485 politics-fatigued Panjimites who figure on Election Commission of India’s electoral list will be stepping out of their homes and heading to the 30 polling booths to cast their vote to elect the capital’s representative in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
The constituency is witnessing a no-holds-barred contest between Sidharth Kuncolienkar of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate of the Congress for the prestigious seat for the first time in a quarter of a century sans the towering political influence of the late Manohar Parrikar.
The latter’s death in March is the reason why Sunday’s bypoll is being conducted.
Also in the fray are Aam Aadmi Party’s Valmiki Naik and former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar of the Goa Suraksha Manch. Both have also run spirited campaigns and could garner slices of the vote share which could turn the final poll arithmetic
turbid.
Two other independents - Vijay More and Dilip Ghadi - were however not visible during the campaign period.
For the record, both the BJP and the Congress camps are claiming that victory will be theirs when counting is held on May 23. Votes will also be counted on that day for the other three Assembly bypolls held a month ago in Mandrem, Mapusa and Shiroda, besides the two Lok Sabha seats.
Polling is slated to commence at 7 am and conclude at 6 pm in 30 booths across the constituency. And when Panjimites do walk up to these 30 booths and vote, they with have their fingers indelibly inked for the eighth time in seven years, they having already voted to elect an MLA in 2012, 2015 and twice in 2017, to choose the North Goa MP in 2014 and on April 23 last, and once to select their councillor in the 2016 CCP elections.
Meanwhile, the North Goa Collector R Menaka told the media at a press conference that 13 history-sheeters have been rounded up by the police ahead of Sunday’s polling.
Following the alleged attack on Kuncolienkar’s car on Thursday night in Panaji, the police has rounded up seven history-sheeters from the jurisdiction of the Panaji police station and another six from the area of the neighbouring
Old Goa police station.
Menaka said the move was routine before any election and precautionary in nature to avert any possible disturbances during polling.
Since voters in Panaji had already voted on April 23 at the North Goa Lok Sabha election, Menaka said the ring finger of the left hand and not the index finger will be inked by polling officials on Sunday.
The result of the Panaji bypoll, much as that of the bypolls to three other Assembly seats held on April 23 in Mandrem, Mapusa and Shiroda, gains political significance as collectively the results could impact the stability of the BJP-led coalition government of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
The BJP and the Opposition Congress currently have 14 MLAs each, while three MLAs of Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai’s Goa Forward Party and three Independents support the government. One MLA each belong to the MGP and NCP.
Monserrate and the Congress had been repeatedly orchestrating during campaigning in Panaji that a new government will take office after the results. Sawant and the BJP have termed the Congress refrain of forming the government as a piped dream.
Campaign rhetoric apart, what shape politics in Goa will take after counting ends will indeed be influenced by which side bags how many of the four seats. Yet it will be the headwinds of the Lok Sabha election results nationally and the power equation in Delhi post May 23 will be the decisive driver.
