MAPUSA
In a seesaw battle for supremacy, which saw fortunes fluctuating at every counting round, Congress’ Carlos Ferreira got the better of BJP’s outgoing MLA, Glenn Ticlo in Aldona with a comfortable margin in the end.
Ticlo, who shot to fame when he first won the assembly elections from Aldona in 2012 and repeated the feat in 2017 assembly polls, was third time unlucky this time.
As a candidate, Ferreira ticked all the right boxes. New face, clean image, professional and not the normal kind of politician.
However, two crucial factors played a key role for his final surge towards victory.
Clearly, the minority votes consolidated towards Congress and number two, the presence of TMC candidate benefited Ferreira.
While Ticlo managed to get slender leads in Bastora, Ucassaim, Nachinola and the two wards in Mapusa which is dominated by the majority community, Ferreira took a sizeable lead in Moira, Pomburpa-Ecoxim and Aldona villages which is dominated by the minority community.
Such was the dominance of Congress in Aldona village that Ferreira got a lead in all the 13 booths in the village.
TMC candidate Kiran Kandolkar’s presence caused much damage to Ticlo which in turn benefited the Congress candidate.
The consolidation of minority votes and the division of votes of the majority community among the TMC candidate, who polled 3,647 votes and AAP candidate’s 1,306 votes was enough to take the sting out of the BJP in Aldona.
