Goans give ‘power’ to 10 MLAs to form Cong or BJP Govt
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 11 March 2017 18:29 IST
Turning the tables upside down, the Congress once again emerged as the single largest party in a historic Goa Assembly election with 17 seats, pushing down the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party back to second position, this time 13 from 21 in 2012.
The mandate is fractured because rest of the 10 seats are divided into the category of Others, who now hold the key to form any government.
It includes 3 each of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward, 1 of Nationalist Congress Party and 3 independents.
The biggest shockers were miserable defeats of Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar by Dayanand Sopte of the Congress with a margin of 7119 and MGP President and ex-minister Dipak Dahwalikar by BJP-supported independent Govind Gaude by 4686 votes.
Yet another blow to the heavyweight politicians was BJP MLA Sidharth Kuncolienker defeating Babush Monseratte by 1069 votes in the capital city of Panaji.
Besides Parsekar and Dhawalikar, six more ministers are also defeated:
BJP: Dayanand Mandrekar, Rajendra Arlekar, Dilip Parulekar and Mahadev Naik.
Independent MLA and minister Avertano Furtado as well as Ramesh Tawadkar, who had quit BJP to contest independent from Canacona, are also defeated.
BJP also lost four more MLAs: Kiran Kandolkar, Ganesh Gaonkar, Subhash Phaldesai and Rajan Naik.
Similarly, besides Babush Monseratte, other defeated MLAs are Lavoo Mamledar (MGP) Mickky Pacheco (GVP to Goa Suraj), Caitu Silva (GVP to Independent), Benjamin Silva (Independent) and Naresh Sawal (Independent to MGP).
Altogether 18 MLAs are defeated this time while Anant Shet of BJP from Mayem and Vishnu Wagh from St Andre did not contest.
Thus there are 20 new entrants in the Assembly this time, including 11 former MLAs and 9 new faces.
The old faces that have come back are:
CONG: Luizinho Faleiro (Navelim), Ravi Naik (Ponda), Subhash Shirodkar (Shiroda), Nilkanth Halarnkar (Tivim), Isidore Fernandes (Canacona), Francis Silveira (St Andre), Filip Nery (Velim), Dayanand Sopte (Mandrem).
BJP: Rajesh Patnekar (Bicholim).
MGP: Babu Azgaonkar (Pernem).
NCP: Churchill Alemao (Benaulim).
The new faces are:
CONG: Clefacio Dias (Cuncolim), Wilfred D’Sa (Nuvem), Tony Fernandes (St Cruz).
BJP: Pravin Zantye (Mayem).
MGP: Deepak Pauskar (Sanvordem).
GOA FORWARD: Vinod Palienkar (Siolim), Jayesh Salgaonkar (Saligao).
INDEPENDENTS: Govind Gaude (Priol), Prasad Gaonkar (Sanguem).
Interestingly, both the women MLAs – Alina Saldanha (BJP) and Jennifer Monseratte (Congress) have retained their seats.
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