BJP sweeps Goa bypolls, nears Cong’s House tally
The BJP on Monday won the assembly seats of Panaji and Valpoi where by-elections were held on August 23. After Monday’s result, the BJP’s strength in the House has risen to 14, still two short of the Congress.
While chief minister Manohar Parrikar won by a margin of 4,803 votes over Girish Chodankar of the Congress in Panaji, health minister Vishwajit Rane who was contesting on a BJP ticket for the first time scored a victory by 10,066 votes to take the Valpoi seat. Rane defeated Roy Naik, son of Congress leader Ravi Naik.
In the February 2017 Assembly elections the BJP had won in Panaji with a margin of around 1000 votes. Babush Monserrate, an independent candidate who had give a tough fight in that election, joined the Goa Forward Party an alliance of the BJP in Goa and pledged his support to Parrikar in the by-elections.
Parrikar, who had been representing Panaji since 1994, had resigned in November 2014 to join the Union cabinet as defence minister. Sidharth Kuncolienkar, who won the subsequent by-poll from Panaji and retained the seat in the 2017 polls, stepped down to make way for Parrikar to contest.
The Valpoi bypoll became necessary after Rane resigned as MLA before joining BJP.
“Our candidates had to fight against the odds. There was no infrastructure in Valpoi and Chodankar was standing for the first time from Panaji. But they did a good job,” said president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Shantaram Naik.