the goan I network
PANAJI
The robust 75.25% turnout on Sunday unusually high for a ‘by-election’, has sent strategists in the camps contesting the prestigious Panaji seat, more importantly those from the BJP and Congress, scurrying to their drawing rooms to figure out math.
Although a whole six percentage points (barely 500 votes) lower than the 17,402-strong turnout in the 2017 general election in which, coincidentally, BJP’s Sidharth Kuncolienkar and Babush Monserrate (albeit not on the Congress ticket then) were also the top contenders, it is much higher than the 15,538 votes cast in the by-election the late Manohar Parrikar won comfortably over Girish Chodankar in August 2017.
Higher turnouts are considered an advantage to the challenger. But in the current case, neither Kuncolienkar nor Monserrate is the challenger, although the latter, some argue could notionally be considered to be one in as much as he is fighting to snatch the seat from the BJP which held it for a good 25 years.
Nonetheless, the Ribandar area where Monserrate’s team has worked hard and has seemingly made inroads into BJP strongholds, has polled a healthy 2500 votes. It is just 23 short of the tally polled in the 2017 general elections when he had conceded a 400-odd votes lead to Kuncolienkar.
Mala, another area where the BJP traditionally held sway but Monserrate’s electioneering machinery had this time concentrated to influence and even held a big public meeting at, has also witnessed high turnouts in its four booths.
In the heart of the city, however, the BJP camp has managed to galvanise its traditional vote-base. In nearly all the booths in the heart of the city, the voter turnouts have been almost on par with the previous head-to-head clash between Kuncolienkar and Monserrate in 2017.
Notably, at the booth where voters from Boca-de-Vaca area vote, a well known BJP stronghold, the turnout has been high, and significantly, higher than what it was in the 2017 by-election which was won by Parrikar.
Also worrisome for the Monserrate-Congress camp will be the nearly
250-odd-vote lower turnout than the 2017 general election tally, in the four booths of Miramar. The area is a stronghold of former mayor Surendra Furtado.
Sunday’s by-election, therefore would be too close to call, admit several senior journalists and political analysts. Several of them are also of the view that Monserrate did start this race in pole position. Whether he matched the acknowledged booth level and micro-management skills of the Kuncolienkar-BJP camp to hold on to that advantage would be best left for May 23 and after the last vote is counted, to reveal.
