Panaji: While the BJP has won the assembly elections in three of the five states with an absolute majority, Goa is one state where the party ended up getting a seat less than the required majority. Although the saffron party looks set to return to power in the state, the opposition might have been able to keep the BJP juggernaut at bay had they fielded alliance candidates in closely contested seats, say analysts.
Take the seats of Mhapsa, Navemil, Karchorem, Dabolim and Talaigaon for instance. In Mhapsa, BJP's Joshua D'Souza bagged 10,195 votes, Congress' Sudhir Kandolkar secured 8548 votes Trinamool candidate Tarak Alerkar got 1,366 votes while AAP's Rahul Mhambare got 1511 votes. The Congress candidate was defeated due to the division of votes here, it is said.
Navemil: BJP's Ulhas Tunkar got 5168 votes, Avertano of Congress got 3,806 votes. TMC's Valanka Alemao got 4738 votes. Aam Aadmi Party candidate Pratima Coutinho got 2,327 votes. The BJP has benefited from the split in this constituency too.
Karchorem: BJP's Nilesh Kabral got a total of 9,973 votes, Congress' Amit Patkar secured 9,301 votes while AAP's Gabriel Fernandes got 830 votes with the same argument being made over the vote division.
Read: BJP has started preparing for 2027 Goa polls already: CM
Dabolim: BJP's Mauvin Godinho got 7594 votes, Congress candidate Viriato Fernandes received 6,024 votes and AAP's Premanand Nanoskar got 2,533 votes and TMC's Mahesh Bhandari got 159 votes. This is where the TMC and AAP hit Congress.
Talaigaon: BJP's Jennifer Monsera got 10,167 votes from here, Congress candidate Tony Rodriguez received 8,126 votes. From here, AAP's Cecily Rodriguez got 2607 votes. If there was no AAP candidate here, the Congress nominee would have been elected.
It is widely believed that the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have hit the Congress in the Goa Assembly elections. It has been found that due to Trinamool and AAP, Congress lost five seats. Had it not been for these two parties, Congress would have won 15 seats. Also, BJP's seats would have been reduced by 5 to 15 thereby hugely disturbing the equation away from the BJP.
That said there are some seats where the BJP was elected on its own with comprehensive wins:
Pernem: BJP's Praveen Arlekar was elected from this constituency. He received 13,063 votes, Rajan Korgaonkar came second as he got 9,645 votes. Jitendra Govankar of Congress secured 1,827 votes. In this constituency, BJP was elected on its own.
Thivim: BJP's Nilkanth Hallanekar was elected from this constituency. He got 9414 votes. From here Congress candidate Aman Lotlikar secured only 1,262 votes. From this constituency, TMC's Kavita Kondulkar bagged 7,363 votes, while AAP's Udai Salkar got 421 votes. Here too, AAP and TMC did not hit the Congress.
Read: Goa polls: No single party likely to get a clear majority, indicate opinion polls
Porvorim: BJP's Rohan Khaunte got 11714 votes from this constituency. From here, Congress and Trinamool candidates got around 3,000 votes.
Mayem: BJP's Premendra Seth got 7,874 votes. There was no Congress candidate from here. But, the candidates were from Revolutionary Govan Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward Party. They got about two to four thousand votes. Seth benefited from this split.
Sankali: From here, Pramod Sawant got a total of 12,250 votes, Congress' Dharmesh Sangalani polled 11,584 votes, AAP candidate Manoj Kumar Ghadi bagged 109 votes. Even if Congress and AAP had combined their votes, Sawant would not have been defeated.
Porium: BJP's Devyani Rane got 17,816 votes while rival candidates received very few votes.
Valpoi: BJP's Vishwajit Rane got 12,262 votes. There was no candidate close to the BJP votes.
Priyol: BJP's Govind Gawde got 11,019 votes, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party candidate Pandurang Dhavalikar got 10,806 votes while Congress' Dinesh Jhalani got 303 votes. Here, the Congress candidate got very few votes. There was no TMC or AAP candidate from here.
Ponda: BJP's Ravi Naik received a total of 7,514 votes, MGP's Ketan Bhatikar secured 7,437 votes and Congress' Rajesh Verenkar bagged 6,839 votes. There was no TMC or AAP candidate here too.
Read: Assembly polls turnout: 60.44% in UP phase II, 62.5% in Uttarakhand, 78.94% in Goa
Siroda: BJP's Subhash Sirodkar got 8307 votes, Congress' Tukaram Borkar secured 1953 votes and AAP's Mahadev Naik got 6133 votes. Even after adding the votes of these two, Sirodkar would not have been defeated.
Vasco da Gama: BJP's Krishna Salkar got 13,118 votes. Congress candidate Josh Elmada received 9461 votes. Saifullah Khan of TMC got 860 votes and Sunil Loren of AAP got 784 votes. Adding the votes of these three, he could not have defeated the BJP candidate.
San Vordem: BJP's Ganesh Gaonkar got 11,877 votes, Congress' Khemlo Sawant 383 votes while BJP candidates were elected on their own. There was no AAP or TMC candidate here.
Sangwem: BJP's Subhash Desai got 8724 votes, Congress' Prasad Gaonkar 4644 votes and TMC's Rakhi Naik 185 votes while AAP's Abhijit Desai 894 votes. Here, the BJP candidate has been elected on his own.
Canacona: BJP's Ramesh Tawadkar secured a total of 9,063 votes, Congress' Jarnadan Bhandari 5,351 votes and Mahadev Desai of TMC 1066 votes while Anup Khudtarkar 835 votes. Even here, the BJP candidate would not have been defeated if the votes of all the three parties had been added.
The particular constituency of Panaji where the BJP fielded Atanasio Monserrate snubbing late CM Manohar Parrikar's son Utpal Parrikar, is also one where the Congress could have kept the BJP at bay by supporting Utpal. BJP got 6,787 votes while Parrikar 6,071 votes. Elvis Gomez of Congress secured 3,175 votes. This means that if Congress had supported Utpal, he would have been elected.
Congress's mistake in selecting candidates
In the Goa Assembly elections, the number of votes received by the Congress candidates in some seats is very low. Some candidates got less than 500 votes. In the Priyol constituency, the Congress candidate got only 303 votes. Therefore, it has to be said that the Congress made a mistake in selecting the candidates.
