Around 6 lakh voters across 20 Assembly segments likely to vote today
BJP candidate Pallavi Dempo during her Temple run in South Goa.
MARGAO
After a fortnight long gruelling campaign, the D-Day has finally come for the two main political players and so are a host of questions doing the rounds in political circles on the eve of the Lok Sabha poll on Tuesday.
Will the voters of South Goa vote for Pallavi Dempo to pave the way for the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rule the country for the third term or will the people rally behind Congress candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes to fight and address the burning issues plaguing the state.
Or, will the voters cast their vote for the BJP to help the party wrest the South Goa seat, which the party had lost the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election? Or, will the Congress maintain its stranglehold by retaining the seat in the May 7 election?
These and other questions come to the fore as close to six lakh voters spread across the 20 Assembly segments in South Goa, around 598,767 electorate to be precise is bracing up to cast their votes in the Tuesday’s election.
On the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, both the BJP and the Congress camps anxiously look forward to retain their hold over the traditional voter base. Bereft of strong organization worth its name in some of the segments, the Congress is banking heavily on party stronghold to once again give the party the much-needed vote to contain BJP’s surge.
The BJP, on the other hand, is relying heavily on its strong organization and the cadre and Prime Minister’s appeal to do the trick for the party in today’s election. Perhaps for the first time in recent elections, the BJP leadership sought votes in the name of the Prime Minister instead of the contesting candidate Pallavi Dempo as part of the strategy to enthuse and mobilize the cadre and voters to rally behind the party.
In fact, while the BJP repeatedly invoked Prime Minster Modi’s election to galvanize the party workers, the Congress candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes went about his campaign highlighting the issues plaguing Goa and the people of Goa. The Congress, it appears, is anxiously waiting for the party’s silent majority of voters spread across the constituency to bail out the party candidate against a strong and determined bid by the ruling BJP to storm the party bastion.
Both the BJP and Congress have not left a single stone unturned to retain its vote and to make inroads into the rival territory. The BJP went about consolidating its voter base in the hinterland talukas where as many as eight Assembly segments are at stake, besides the four seats in Mormugao taluka. The ruling party, however, did not ignore Salcete like in the 2019 election, but has made a determined bid to eat into the Congress vote this time round.
