Team Goemkarponn
CANACONA: Congress (INC) and BJP shared one each of the two ZP seats at stake in Canacona, with saffron brigade loosing much at odds Khola (23) with a slender margin of just 52 votes, while retaining BJP’s prestigious Poinguinim(23) with a satisfactory margin over 858 votes.
In a three-cornered fight which incidentally reduced to one-to-one fight between BJP and INC (with AAP’s candidate struggling to reach 250) BJP’s Tejal Pagi could garner only a slender margin of just 105 votes in 1st of the two rounds of counting with conceding lead to Congress candidate at Betul-Naqueri VP, but reclaiming lead with a big margin in VP Khola booth and parts of Agonda VP booths. In Spite of retaining the lead after conceding over 100 lead in Agonda to congress, BJP got a shock of its kind, by conceding a large margin of votes after completion of votes in all the booths of Shristhal VP. BJP was losing by 49 votes when the second round of counting was completed. Unconvinced, BJP sought recounting of votes and after votes were recounted on first appeal BJP loss increased to 50 votes, and on the second appeal for recounting the winning margin of Congress candidate has widened to 52 votes. A heart-broken BJP contingent finally silently left the counting hall.
There were jubilations when the Returning Officer flanked by EC Observer handed over the certificate of election to the post of ZP for Khola -22 seat. The jubilations and celebrations extended outside the counting hall with Quepem MLA and congress leader Altone D’Costa,
garlanded the winning candidate Sumitra R Pagi, while Canacona Block congress president Abel Borges, congress leaders Janardhan Bhandari, Sanju Naik, and several other congressmen assembled at the gate to congratulate Sumitra Pagi.
For the Poinguinim(23) the voting began with the first round (12 booths) itself giving a lead of over 100 votes to BJP’s Ajay (Ajit) Lolienkar while Goa Forward Party-INC alliance candidate Prashant Naik trailing behind. By the second round the lead widened to 891 votes and with 7 more booths remaining in the third round, the celebrations had already begun outside the hall with BJP supporters giving slogans for win. The third round which consisted of 7 booths all from Gaondongrim village was completed, the lead however, reduced to some extent, and BJP’s Ajay Lolienkar was declared winner by 858 votes to represent Poinguinim (23) ZP seat.
Incidentally, Khola(22) winner congress Sumitra Pagi, thanked thanking overs for electing her said she will work for the people, Poinguinim (23) BJP winner Ajay Pagi thanking the saffron party and its leadership, said he’ll strive to work to keep the election promises of facilitating at least one crematorium in each of the villages and provide some shelter to the stray cattles, getting killed and responsible to motorists fatalities on roads.
Khola(22) INC (Sumitra R Pagi) -5103, BJP (Tejal Pagi)-5051 and AAP (Adv. Samiksha Kholkar) – 249.
Poinguinim (23) BJP- (Ajay Lolienkar) – 5345, GFP-(Prashant Naik) -4487, AAP (Rajesh Gaonkar) – 290, Ind(Umesh alias Daya Gaonkar)-1403, Ind (Shailesh Pagui) -637, Ind(Vipin Prabhugaonkar) – 446, Ind (Diksha Pagi)- 298. – END
