BJP bags 29, but opposition makes it sweat to finish line

Panaji: On Monday, BJP claimed a clear victory at the zilla panchayat polls, winning both the North Goa and South Goa ZPs. The party won 29 seats, with the closest challenge from Congress’ 10 seats. Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the ‘Mhaje Ghar’ scheme, along with other scheme benefits, and development work won the party the verdict.

“We had an 80% strike rate at these elections. Every election helps us assess our performance and work on it. We will come out with a bigger win at the assembly polls,” said Sawant.


BJP president Damodar ‘Damu’ Naik said, “Result shows that there is no other alternative than BJP. People were taunting us that you’ll will not be able to bluff now with the ballot paper. Now, we have won with ballot paper and they have been silenced. People liked the work carried out by CM Pramod Sawant. Lot of efforts were made to spread misinformation, but we succeeded due to everyone’s belief in BJP and its assurances.” However, the win did not come without the opposition and independents making BJP sweat it out to the finish line.

BJP’s total seats won came down to 29 as against last ZP polls’ count of 33 for the party.

Congress saw its seats won rise to 10 from earlier four.

Opposition members said that BJP only managed to secure victory in several seats due to a division of votes.

“These are things they are saying now that they have lost. The opposition should have fought it together then. Why did they fight it out individually against us. What happened to the joining of hands at the Narkasur event,” the CM said in reaction on Monday. But the margins were undeniably narrow in many seats.

In Torxem in Pernem taluka, BJP’s Raghoba Ladu Kambli won with 3,725 as against independent Gajanan Gadekar’s 3,448.

The Sirsaim seat went to Congress’s Nilesh Kambli with 4,701, narrowly winning against BJP’s Sagar Maulankar who polled 4,622 votes. Sawant, however, said that the end tally was a clear vote for BJP’s governance in the state.

“The NDA has won both zilla panchayats. The winning candidates will work for development of rural Goa. Lot of speeches were made by the opposition but we were busy monitoring the results. Congress has been contained at 10 seats. In some seats, we did win with narrow margins due to some mistakes, we will assess and work on these mistakes,” the CM said.

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