Yes you heard it right, the campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls ended on May 5, at 5 pm. All the main contestants have claimed victory and said the issue was only left of winning margins. Insane isn’t it.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which taken elections very very seriously, once again hit the grounnd even before the candidates were declared and covered the constituencies in 3 or 4 rounds.
Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, BJP State president Sadanand Shet Tanavade, candidates Shirpad Naik, Pallavi Dempo and all BJP leaders, MLAs, ministers and karyakartas left no stone unturned to impress upon the voters.
Basically they had 33 MLAs on ground working for candidates.
To add to it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah gave a major boost to BJP’s campaign in Goa.
Besides this, the BJP IT cell worked 24×7 with the party’s achivements and to add to it some controversies too.
Irrespective of what result would be on June 4, the BJP worked hard to win both seats.
Now on the other hand, the Congress’ campaign was lacklustre, with a novice like Amit Patkar, the GPCC president, at the helm not much was expected. Mind you this was his first elections too as the president and it was always going to be difficult for him to manage such a huge campaign against the might of BJP.
While Patkar took no major efforts neither to impress people nor to control the media’s negative publicity, it is the anti-incumbency against the BJP in some pockets, which will help his caude. Otherwise Patkar gets just 1.5 stars out of 10. Worse isn”t it?
Young guns like Sunil Kauthankar, Varad Mardolkar, Jana Bhandari tried their best but they were powerless in major decisions.
Also bigwigs like Girish Chodankar seemed to be sidelined and that can have major impact on the prospects.
Of course, both the party candidates Ramakant Khalap and Viriato Fernandes worked day in and day out.
To make the matter worse for party, none of the national leaders descended in Goa to support the candidate, the Gandhis – Sonia, Rahul and Priyankar besides AICC president Malikarjun Kharge too gave Goa a skip. Was Goa not important? Maybe yes, with just two seats here, they felt stakes were much higher somewhere else.
Addressing BJP campaign meeting at Cuncolim on Saturday, Chief MInister Dr Pramod Sawant took opportunity to target Congress that none of the national leaders of Congress including Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi came to campaign for their candidates in Goa.
“This itself indicates that the Congress party has conceded its defeat in both the seats,” he said.
Credit to alliance partners…
Even before the Congress candidates were announced, the alliance partner Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) started the campaign for “unknown” INDIA bloc candidates.
Venzxy Viegas and Cruz Silva were the first to hit ground and started campaign for INDI candidate in Benaulim.
As the time passed, the other alliance partners Goa Forward and NCP too joined the campaign.
GFP President Vijai Sardesai, Vice-president Durgadas Kamat and other office bearers campaigned extensively for the alliance candidates in South Goa, especially.
Khalap left at lurch….
While the entire Congress and the INDI alliance focussed on South Goa, the North Goa candidate Ramakanat Khalap taking on 5-time winner Shripad Naik, was to fend for himself.
Not an ideal situation for any candidate, it was only Adv Carlos Alvares Fereira who was seen supporting and fighting the BJP in the North.
The bottomline…
For the first time we can say the alliance parties worked harder then the candidate’s party for a win in elections. The Congress has not learnt its lessons and is only banking on hand symbol and the repoutation of the grand old party to win the 2024 elections.
