The TMC, AAP and RGP, in particular, should be held solely responsible for successfully splitting the secular votes in most constituencies and bringing back the BJP to power for the third consecutive time in a row in Goa. The way the above-mentioned parties went about their election campaign somehow gives one a feeling that they were unleashed by the BJP bosses from Delhi to selectively defeat the Congress party. The Congress would have won more than 22 seats plus if the party bosses had given tickets to the right candidates this time and would have easily gone to form the next government on its own in Goa. It would have easily won the seats of Taleigao, Navelim, Cortalim, Dabolim, Velim, Curchorem, Benaulim and Sanquelim. Now, the party has to stay content with playing the opposition role for the next five years in the Goa assembly. I think that the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar, who has owned responsibility for the defeat, may have deliberately given tickets to some known BJP sympathisers or weak candidates at the behest of his mentor Digambar Kamat and in the bargain destroying the prospects of the Congress party. Hope better sense prevails and the Congress starts working seriously from the grassroots once again.
