Parrikar Defends Panaji Comfortably, Vishwajit Undisputed King Of Valpoi

Panaji: Brushing aside critics and detractors, chief minister Manohar Parrikar and health minister Vishwajit Rane won the bypolls to Panaji and Valpoi assembly seats, respectively. The results on Monday, which were on expected lines, increased BJP’s tally in the 40-member House by one—it now stands at 14.
Parrikar and Vishwajit’s win also proved that the opposition has been unable to come up with either a strategy or a worthy challenger to dethrone the two strongmen from their bastion.For Parrikar, it is a record sixth win from Panaji, a constituency which he has held on to since he first got elected in 1994. In Valpoi, Vishwajit once again showed that it is his personal charisma and not the party colour that matters as he swept the seat by a record margin of 10,066 votes.
Parrikar had to get elected after returning from Delhi as the defence minister to take on the reins of the state, while Vishwajit, a long time Congressman, went to the electorate after joining BJP in March. Parrikar’s victory margin of 4,803 votes on a 70% turnout was well short of his 2012 margin of 6,068 votes with 79% voting.
In absolute terms, only 1,200-odd votes more were polled in 2012 compared to the 15,538 total votes in the bypoll.
“There were some attempts made to polarise certain areas by feeding wrong information to create fear factor. Communalism and corruption does not work with me, so the third factor was brought in. Well tried by them, but ultimately people are wise,” Parrikar said in his post-win comments.
Parrikar also said he will vacate his Rajya Sabha seat next week.
The mandate appears to be a vote for stability of the government and for the development agenda, political analysts say.
“It’s also a seal of approval for what we have done so far,” president of Goa Forward Party (GFP), BJP’s alliance partner, and town & country planning minister Vijai Sardesai said.
The opposition created a buzz but that couldn’t be translated into votes against Parrikar or Vishwajit. Chodankar turned out to be the saving grace for Congress. Despite the party not having a strong unit in the capital city, he polled 5,000-odd votes.
“I am thankful to the people of Panaji for their support. We tried to reach out to voters and people have given us a good response. Time was short for our campaign,” Chodankar said, adding “I feel I must have failed to convince them on the issues.”
Vishwajit retaining his seat after switching over from Congress to BJP by a huge 10,000-plus votes showed that he has been able to carry along all sections of society. “Today, my decision was vetted by the people of Valpoi, which is to support Parrikar government in the state. This is a vote for development, this is a vote for progress,” Vishwajit said.
His opponent from Congress, Roy Naik, said people voted for Vishwajit as he was a minister. “He (Vishwajit) promised a lot of jobs during his campaign and people may have thought that he will give jobs as he is a minister. That may be one of the reasons behind my defeat,” he said.
Poll watchers say Parrikar’s comfortable win will give him a big boost and analysts expect him to be better placed to take some tough decisions. Until now, a perception had been created that he was dependent on his allies—Goa Forward, MGP and Independents. Even in decision making, it looked like Vijay Sardesai would make the statements after which the chief minister would go by them.
In the previous terms of Parrikar as the CM, no one dared to make statements on policy decision of the government. This victory may help Parrikar to overcome the image that he is not wanting to take tough decisions as he was not an elected MLA.