THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA
The Aam Aadmi Party may have not won any seats in Bardez but it has definitely managed to keep its head high with a sizeable vote share which will cause heartburn in the Congress camp.
For the first time, AAP tried to test the waters in the Zilla Panchayat elections and contested in four constituencies “ Socorro, Calangute, Aldona and Sirsaim.
In Calangute and Aldona, the split in secular vote has come in handy for the BJP in all the three constituencies.
In Calangute, the total vote polled by AAP candidate Manuel Cardozo (1,378 votes) and Congress candidate Lourence Silveira bagged (4,615 votes) is more than the votes polled by BJP candidate Dattprasad Dabholkar (5,043 votes).
Similarly in Aldona, AAP’s Smitha Shet polled 1,360 votes, while Congress candidate Ruby Halarnkar bagged 2,502 votes which jointly overtakes the votes polled by BJP’s Manisha Naik.
Even in Socorro, the AAP’s Mario Cordeiro put up a good show and polled 1,500 votes and which probably made the difference for the losing Independent candidate, Vaishali Satardekar, in the constituency.
In fact, AAP came third in Socorro relegating Congress to the fourth position with its candidate Sarvesh Naik managing to poll just 633 votes.
Even in Sirsaim, AAP candidate Godfrey D’Lima polled 706-odd votes.
Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo refused to admit that AAP presence in the fray had made things easy for BJP in the constituency.
“People vote on the basis of the candidate. Our candidate stood for development and for the works done in the constituency. We also worked hard to ensure that our voters come out and vote on the day of the election,” Ticlo said.
