MAPUSA
Time after time, it’s amazing how BJP wins the Mapusa seat despite a shrill campaign of no development run by the opposition.
After winning the seat in the 2019 by-election upon his father’s death, Joshua D’Souza made it fifth term in a row for the BJP.
He is the only minority face to make it to the assembly from the taluka after his senior colleague Glenn Ticlo lost from the neighbouring Aldona constituency.
Although supporters from the BJP camp predicted that it would be a close call and the margin of victory could be a difference of a few hundred votes, the final margin was quite comfortable.
The win is even more creditable because the Mapusa MLA was facing internal differences from some of the BJP karyakartas. But the CM and other senior party leaders stood strongly behind the young MLA.
Both the BJP and Congress ran a spirited campaign in the run-up to the election but the popular vote appeared to be with Sudhir Kandolkar.
More importantly, former minister Michael Lobo marshaled resources and actively campaigned for Kandolkar in the election.
So how did Joshua D’Souza manage to turn the tables against the more experienced and popular Congress candidate?
Definitely, the split in votes between other parties “ AAP, TMC and RGP “ has gone in favour of the BJP.
In the 2019 by-election it was almost a straight fight with Sudhir Kandolkar on Congress ticket bagging 10,016 votes while BJP’s Joshua D’Souza getting 11,167 votes.
This time, D’Souza received 10,195 votes and Kandolkar got 8,548. Significantly, AAP’s Rahul Mhambre bagged 1,511 votes, TMC’s Tarak Arolkar 1,366 votes and RGP’s Rohan Salgaonkar 996 votes.
Besides, the BJP campaign that Kandolkar would be a remote-controlled MLA under Michael Lobo also appears to have gone against the Congress candidate.
