NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Disapproving all exit polls wrong, the Goan voters favoured the Congress party candidates at the state assembly polls, making the political faction single largest party with 17 seats, while reducing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strength in the House from 21 to 13.
The results of the poll announced by the Election Commission of India witnessed one of the biggest upsets in the election, with ‘giant killer’ Dayanand Sopte of the Congress defeating Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar by a margin of 7,119 votes in the Mandrem constituency. Sopte polled 16,490 votes, pushing Parsekar to a second place with 9,371 votes.
The Chief Minister, after his defeat tendered his resignation to Governor Mridula Sinha on Saturday evening.
The BJP bigwigs, including Rajendra Arlekar, Dilip Parulekar, Mahadev Naik and Dayanand Mandrekar, besides the sitting legislators of the party namely Kiran Kandolkar, Ganesh Gaonkar and Subhash Phaldesai, lost the election. The ministers namely Deepak Dhavalikar, Avertano Furtado and Ramesh Tawadkar also tasted defeat at the polls.
BJP was routed in five talukas namely Pernem, Sanguem, Canacona, Ponda and Salcete. However, it has got cent per cent success in Bicholim and Mormugao taluka by winning all seats.
In contrast, senior leaders of the Congress such as Luizinho Faleiro, Ravi Naik, Philip Nery Rodrigues and Isidore Fernandes will return to the state legislative assembly after a hiatus.
Other senior politicians namely Manohar Azgaonkar representing the Maharahstrawadi Gomantak Party, Churchill Alemao of the Nationalist Congress Party and Rajesh Patnekar of the BJP were also elected as the members of the House after a break during the previous term of the state legislative assembly.
Many Congress legislators like Pratapsingh Rane, Vishwajit Rane, Digambar Kamat, Chandrakant Kavalekar and Jennifer Monserrate were re-elected.
Pratapsingh Rane created history by winning 11 state assembly elections consecutively. Serving since 1972, as the member of the assembly – initially when Goa was a Union territory and then as a state – Rane, this time won by a lead of 4,066 votes.
The MGP, the Goa Forward Party and the category of the Independents, all had three legislators each being elected. Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar, who won with a huge margin of 13,680 votes, Manohar Azgaonkar and Deepak Pauskar will represent the MGP in the state legislative assembly, while Vijai Sardesai, Vinod Paliencar and Jayesh Salgaonkar are the Goa Forward Party candidates elected.
The elected Independent candidates are Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude and Prasad Gaonkar.
The counting started at Bal Bhavan, Campal-Panaji in North Goa, and Government College of Commerce and Economics, Borda-Margao in South Goa at 8 am, first taking up postal ballots and then the electronic voting machines. The first result in North Goa came from the Mandrem constituency, while the first seat in South Goa went to the MGP, with Deepak Pauskar being elected from the Sanvordem constituency.
The Aam Aadmi Party, the Goa Suraksha Manch, the Goa Vikas Party, the Goa Su-Raj Party, the United Goans Party and the Goa Praja Party failed to open account at the state assembly polls.
A large number of people, including supporters of various political parties, had gathered at both the venues with drums, colour powders, sweets and flags of the respective parties. The supporters of losing candidates, however, chose to leave the counting venues quietly.
The supporters of the city candidate, Sidharth Kunkalienkar took a rally in the city, after his victory over his closest rival Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate.