MARGAO
The Navelim Zilla Panchayat by-poll result has now ruffled feathers in the ruling BJP camp, with party candidate Satyavijai Naik unequivocally saying that neither Congress-turned-BJP MLA and Salcete lone Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues nor former minister in the BJP regime Avertano Furtado had worked for him at the hustings.
That’s not all. Satyavijai said though NCP lone MLA Churchill Alemao is supporting the BJP government, the Benaulim MLA had rallied behind Independent candidate Cipru Cardozo apparently as part of his future political strategy in Navelim.
The BJP finished a poor fourth in the Navelim by-poll despite the party going all out to wrest the seat by drafting bigwigs for Satyavijai’s campaign, including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, deputy Chief Ministers Manohar Ajgaonkar and Chandrakant Kavlekar and party state president Sadanand Tanavade.
While the BJP had exuded confidence of winning the Navelim seat on the premise that the party had polled around 2000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election without much effort and campaign, the party failed to cross the four-digit figure votes in the just concluded by-poll.
Leave alone garnering the much-needed minority vote in the constituency dominated by the Catholic community, the BJP candidate, it appears could not retain the votes polled by the party in the Lok Sabha polls.
Satyavijai said that Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues did not work for his success as evident by the poor votes polled in the Minister’s home village, Dramapur-Sirlim. Similarly, he said that though former minister Avertano Furtado had attended his meeting at Sinquetim presided by the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, he managed to get just a couple of votes from Avertano’s polling booth.
As far as Churchill Alemao is concerned, Satyavijai said the Benaulim MLA decided to back the Independent candidate Cipru to prepare the ground for the 2022 Assembly election. The Benaulim MLA has decided to field his family member from Navelim in the coming Assembly election.
“I have already briefed Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on the reasons behind my defeat and the role played by Minister Filipe Neri, former minister Avertano Furtado and Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao in the Navelim ZP by-poll,” he said.
Satyavijai, however, said that he would stake claim for the Navelim Assembly ticket for the 2022 election, but left the final decision to the party leadership.
