MAPUSA
While the presence of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) candidate benefited the BJP in Tivim it could have cost the party the seat in Siolim.
RGP candidate Gauresh Mandrekar came third by polling 3,188 votes in Siolim and could have helped Parra Sarpanch, Delilah Lobo to create history for Congress in Siolim.
Besides, 13 candidates, the highest number of candidates in the State, contested from this constituency.
Delilah Lobo created a record by becoming the first Congress candidate and first woman candidate from outside the constituency to win the seat.
Fighting against a four-time BJP MLA and former minister Dayanand Mandrekar was always going to be a challenge but Delilah managed to stick to her plan and emerge triumph.
The win will be even sweeter as her illustrious husband Michael Lobo had a point to prove that his wife was capable to make it to the august House.
The run-up to the election campaign was bitter, to say the least, with BJP using all the tricks in the book to paint the Congress candidate Delilah Lobo in a bad light.
Everyone knows that there is no love lost between former minister Michael Lobo and ex-minister Dayanand Mandrekar, but when Lobo decided to field his wife Delilah in Siolim, the entire campaign turned into a smear campaign against the Lobos.
