MAPUSA
Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar on Monday sought to downplay the poor Zilla Panchayat performance in Tivim, asserting that the results would have no bearing on his prospects in the Assembly elections scheduled a little over a year from now.
Halarnkar said Assembly elections were a “different ball game” with a much wider canvas, while ZP polls were largely localised in nature.
Attempting to defend the setback, he pointed out that the margin of victory of the Independent candidate in Colvale had reduced to around 1,400 votes compared to nearly 2,000 votes in the previous ZP election.
Referring to the Sirsaim defeat, he noted that the BJP candidate lost by a very narrow margin and added that Tivim village had never given him a lead even during the Assembly elections, yet he still emerged victorious.
