CORTALIM
It has been a traditional hot spot for elections, but Goa’s largest slum of Zuari Nagar could well fail to make a major impact in deciding the destiny of the winning candidate from Cortalim constituency.
While many still consider that Zuari Nagar has the cutting edge this time too, since it holds a significant 9000-odd strong voters from a 30,000-strong vote bank in the constituency, the large number of candidates “ 10 to be precise “ in the fray are almost certain to split the migrant votes.
With migrant-dominated areas likely to be divided among the many candidates, those aspirants who can sway the balance of 21,000 local votes in their favour could emerge winner at the hustings of these assembly elections.
Given the present situation, most candidates, especially those from mainstream parties, have focused on Zuari Nagar and nearby migrant-dominated areas, but this could give an advantage to those candidates who have a good rapport with local voters.
The influence of the local votes had been apparent also in the 2012 polls.
According to Dr Marconi Correia of Cuelim, “late Matanhy Saldanha had polled only 800 votes in Zuari Nagar in the 2002 elections, but had local votes in his pocket, which paved the way for his victory.”
“I have doubts on whether any single candidate can muster majority of Goan votes this time, given the many candidates in the fray,” Dr Correia told The Goan.
However in 2012, the migrants influenced the outcome of the polls when Matanhy Saldanha of BJP had polled over 2,500 votes in the migrant dominated areas of Upas Nagar, Zuari Nagar, Zorint and MES College areas, followed by Ramakant Borkar (1,942 votes) and Caitano Xavier of Congress (1779 votes).
But the significance of the local votes was not lost, as Nelly Rodrigues, who had polled only 580 votes in these migrant-dominated areas, emerged runners-up in the Cortalim assembly polls after securing most local votes.
This time around, many candidates who have jumped into the poll fray will be vying for the same migrant voters and that includes BJP’s sitting MLA Alina Saldanha, Congress candidate Mariano Rodrigues, Nelly Rodrigues, Sancoale Sarpanch Ramakant Borkar, Independent candidate and Cortalim ZP member Antony Vaz, AAP’s Olencio Simoes, Sancoale Panch Sharan Meti and lesser known MGP candidate Suman Sharma.
This would leave the migrant vote bank divided between the candidates and not a single candidate can claim these migrant dominated areas as his or her stronghold. As a result, candidates tapping into the greatest number of
local Goan votes could emerge victorious.
