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Goa: Congress, BJP win with lower margin

Prakash Kamat

PANAJI: As expected, the ruling Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained their respective parliamentary constituencies in Goa, albeit with considerably lower margin.

BJP candidate and sitting MP Sripad Naik retained North Goa constituency consecutively for the third term defeating Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominee Jitendra Deshprabhu in a tough battle by a slender margin of 5,893.

Mr. Naik won this seat by defeating NCP’s Wilfred de Souza in the last election by a big margin of around 58,000 votes.

A delayed start to electioneering on account of inability of the Congress-NCP to arrive at a consensus over contesting the seat eventually proved costly for the NCP candidate.

In Catholic-dominated South Goa, Congress’ traditional bastion, sitting MP and former Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha managed to win by merely 12,516 votes against Mr. Narendra Savoikar of the BJP.

Mr. Sardinha had won this seat in a byelection held barely a year back by around 27,000 votes while Churchill Alemao of the Congress had won by nearly 51,000 votes in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress candidate received a setback in the Catholic-dominated Salcete taluk, the major segment of the South Goa constituency which traditionally gave unbeatable lead to a Congress candidate, partly on account of anti-incumbency factor. Mr. Sardinha was seen as a “non-performer” and also on account of internal sabotage by some leaders from within the Congress spearheaded by senior Minister Mr. Churchill Alemao, who was sulking after denial of Congress ticket to his daughter Valanka Alemao.

Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who worked tirelessly for the South Goa Congress candidate’s election, said he was confident that the Congress would win the seat.

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