MARGAO
Close to 9,000 voters, around 8,953 voters to be precise, turned up to cast their vote in the Navelim Zilla Panchayat by-poll on Saturday, which had witnessed a four-cornered contest, with the three national parties - Congress, BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party - making a determined bid to unseat two-time Independent candidate Cipru Cardozo.
While the Independent candidate exuded confidence of retaining the seat with a comfortable margin, his challengers, the BJP, Congress and AAP too expressed their confident of winning the election.
“The 57.52 voter turnout will go in my favour. Our people have come out to give me another mandate based on the development undertaken by me in my constituency,” Cipru said.
BJP candidate Satyavijai Naik said the voter turnout has gone in his favour, saying the BJP voters had come out and exercised their franchise. “We had gone to the election with a clear strategy. With the voter turnout of 57.52 per cent, we are confident of the Lotus blooming in the Navelim Zilla Panchayat seat for the first time,” Satyavijai said.
The BJP team immediately went into a huddle soon after voting ended at 5 pm, with party leaders on the job to analyse the poll percentage.
Incidentally, Congress candidate Pratima Coutinho said the people of Navelim will give her a mandate to represent them in the South Goa Zilla Panchayat. She, however, hastened to add that she had just 14 days to canvass for the election after the Congress party gave her the responsibility to contest the election.
Pratima further said the BJP had allegedly used money and muscle power in the election and had drafted for campaigning Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, two deputy Chief Ministers, besides others in a bid to defeat the Congress. She further said the NCP MLA Churchill Alemao had also entered Navelim in support of Independent candidate Cipru Cardozo.
On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Matilda D’Silva exuded confidence of winning the seat, saying the people of Navelim will cast their vote in her favour to bring about a change in Navelim.
“I had evoked good response from the people and I am confident that the response will turn into votes today,” she said.
Elections for the Navelim Zilla Panchayat seat had to be countermanded following the death of the Congress candidate Babush Coelho.
