the goan I network
MARGAO
When six-time Margao MLA Digambar Kamat kicked off Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha’s campaign in the city, the former Chief Minister’s plea to his workers was simple “ work hard to give huge lead for the Congress candidate.
Kamat himself had got down to the battle field by holding corner meetings and moving door-to-door across the length and breadth towards achieving the target of 4,000-plus lead for Sardinha.
The BJP camp appears upbeat in Margao in the post-poll scenario, with party leaders saying their strategy to tap Kamat’s votes to Narendra Sawaikar should bring the party back in reckoning in the city.
In 2014, the Congress had trailed behind the BJP by 1,128 votes and this scenario was attributed to the Modi factor and lack of interest shown by local Congress cadre. Five years down the line, BJP leaders say the party will succeed in its strategy in checkmating Kamat in his bastion.
Sources in the BJP say the party leaders had gone about garnering additional votes by targetting Kamat’s voters, who in the past were BJP voters, but had been voting for the Margao MLA because of his goodwill since he had left the BJP to join the Congress in 2005. “In 2014, we had tapped these voters when we made an appeal to vote for Modi and we had succeeded. This time too, we went to these voters to vote for Modi and the nation and we are back in the reckoning in Margao,” informed city BJP leader Rupesh Mahatme.
He pointed out that the BJP managed to get significant number of voters to the BJP in the Lok Sabha election, who otherwise used to vote for Kamat in the Assembly election.
In fact, Mahatme pointed out that of the total 21,145 polling in Margao, the BJP will not lag behind, but will be right there in the scheme of things. BJP in private say the voting pattern has brought back the party in reckoning in Margao, adding that the result may go either way with a slender margin.
Interestingly, while the Margao MLA’s stronghold in the slum areas is expected to give the Congress the much needed push in the city, Mahatme said the BJP will manage to stop Kamat’s free run atop migrant inhabited Moti Dongor. “I was in charge of Moti Dongor and of the total polling of around 1700-odd votes, the BJP will poll sizeable votes in the migrant dominated area. The BJP will retain its hold over Malbhat and Comba and will poll sizeable votes in the Aquem area,” he said, adding ‘all these equations will deny the Congress the huge lead promised by the Margao MLA’.
The former Chief Minister, when contacted, however, said that voters have already given their verdict, while exuding confidence that the Congress will get a sizeable lead in Margao -- a claim the BJP leadership is not ready to accept, promising a close finish in the city.
