Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: MGP’s Deepak Dhavalikar, stated that constituencies like Marcaim, Ponda, Shiroda, and Sanvordem remain their citadel to this day.
We have between six and seven percent of the vote in South Goa. We will win this seat by at least ten thousand votes with our backing for the BJP in the Lok Sabha, Dhavalikar declared.
“It is clear that the party with our backing in the South has prevailed. Constituencies like Marcaim, Ponda, Shiroda, and Sanvordem are strongholds for us. This benefits any party that accepts our backing,” he remarked.
Francisco Sardinha, a South Goa Congress MP, acknowledged that the MGP aided him in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, stating that since they are now BJP’s alliance partners, the BJP will receive a portion of their vote.
“However, the Aam Aadmi Party is with us; they will assist Congress in garnering votes,” Sardinha remarked.
Sardinha won the South Goa Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 elections with a 12,516 advantage. Narendra Sawaikar, his rival, received 1,14978 votes. With the backing of the MGP, Sawaikar defeated Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, the Congress candidate, in 2014 with 32,330 votes. In 2019, however, he lost with a 3% decrease in vote share from his 48% share in 2014.
Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, an independent MLA, has backed both the MGP and the BJP government.
On May 7, the coastal state will vote in the third phase of the Lok Sabha general elections for the North and South seats.
