Staff ReporterMapusaAll India Trinamool Congress’ Goa unit president Kiran Kandolkar along with the party’s three candidates in the recent state assembly polls and workers on Wednesday resigned from the party.Kandolkar held political strategist Prashant Kishor responsible for the defeat of the party in Goa and said that instead he helped BJP to win the elections.Addressing media persons, Kandolkar, in the presence of the party’s Mapusa, Siolim and Porvorim candidates Tarak Arolkar, Leo Dias, and Sandip Vazarkar respectively, panchayat members and other party workers, announced about his exit from TMC as he had resigned from its primary membership along with others in Mapusa. Kandolkar said that the decision was taken after consulting his supporters.Stating that the TMC has no future in Goa, Kandolkar said, “I don’t blame TMC but hold Prashant Kishor responsible for the humiliating defeat in Goa as the party had given responsibility to him. He may be the biggest political strategist but he has failed in Goa.”He further said, “Prashant Kishor’s entire strategy has failed. First Aleixo Reginaldo had joined but he failed to retain him in the party which was a loss for us. Secondly, he failed to bring Mamata Banerjee to Goa during the last leg of election while another party’s national leader had come and campaigned in Goa.”Kandolkar further said that Kishor came to Goa to blackmail the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi adding, “He wanted to show that if he is not taken then he would reduce the Congress vote share.The opposition was divided so BJP is ruling with 33% of vote share while 67% vote share was divided for which the opposition and Prashant Kishor is responsible. He eventually ended up helping BJP to form government again in Goa.”Replying to a question whether he had made a mistake, Kandolkar said, “We did what we felt was right at that time. It’s human to commit a mistake. We did commit a mistake.”Kandolkar also accused IPAC Company of cheating Goans and said, “Huge bills of taxi drivers, volunteers who were employed during polls, printers, hoarding and others were not paid.”Kandolkar further said that the opposition parties have failed to unite which has resulted in victory of BJP.Commenting about his future plans, Kandolkar said that he would work for people as an independent and not float a new party.It may be recalled that on Tuesday, Colvale ZP and Tivim candidate Kavita Kandolkar, who is Kiran’s wife, along with 32 supporters, had resigned from the party.
Party to restructure Goa state committeePanaji: On a day when Colvale Zilla Panchayat member Kavita Kandolkar, a member of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party and wife of Goa TMC president Kiran Kandolkar, quit the party along with all her supporters from the Thivim constituency, the All India Trinamool Congress announced on Monday that it has decided to restructure the entire Goa state committee with immediate effect.Kavita Kandolkar was also a candidate of the TMC party during the recently-held Goa Assembly polls. She has resigned from the primary membership of TMC, along with sarpanchas, panchayat members and her supporters. She has submitted her resignation letter to the Goa TMC president.Kandolkar said she took the step following pressure from her supporters, as the Mamata Banerjee-led party was not accepted by the people of Goa at the Assembly polls.She also said that I-PAC and its then mentor Prashant Kishor had failed to fulfill the promises made before the elections on behalf of TMC.“People who have not been paid their money for various services during the elections were coming to my residence asking for the pending dues. This is also one of the reasons why I quit the party,” she said.Meanwhile, the TMC has said that it has decided to restructure the Goa state executive committee with immediate effect. “A newly-constituted ad hoc committee will be announced shortly,” the party tweeted. “We take this opportunity to reiterate our solemn commitment towards working for the people of Goa and their well-being,” the party said.
Panaji: Former TMC Goa founder member Yatish Naik joined BJP along with his supporters on Monday. Naik had earlier quit Congress following his differences with former GPCC president Girish Chodankar, and had joined TMC ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. However, a few months after he joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party, he called it quits. He had sought to contest the elections from Saligao. The former TMC member was inducted into BJP on Monday by party state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade, who said that although Naik had decided to join BJP immediately after he left TMC, he chose to wait until the elections concluded. “Stability and development are the two mantras that can lead the state to prosperity,” Naik said and added that people who are concerned about Goa will agree with BJP’s core philosophy of stability and development. “I will work for the party as per the responsibilities given to me,” he said.
PANAJI: Former TMC Goa founder member Yatish Naik joined BJP along with his supporters on Monday. Naik had earlier quit Congress following his differences with former GPCC president Girish Chodankar, and had joined TMC ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. However, a few months after he joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party, he called it quits. He had sought to contest the elections from Saligao. The former TMC member was inducted into BJP on Monday by party state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade, who said that although Naik had decided to join BJP immediately after he left TMC, he chose to wait until the elections concluded. “Stability and development are the two mantras that can lead the state to prosperity,” Naik said and added that people who are concerned about Goa will agree with BJP’s core philosophy of stability and development. “I will work for the party as per the responsibilities given to me,” he said.
PANAJI: Revolutionary Goans Party (RG), which proved to be the dark horse in the recently-concluded state assembly elections, has now trained its guns on the coming panchayat elections. RG founder Manoj Parab said that the party will begin its work from April 1 as it looks to make inroads into Goa. In a late night passionate appeal via Facebook, Parab sought funding as well as organisational support from people. Parab said that the party aims to have a stronger presence in the 40-member house in 2027 for which the party needs to prepare itself. “RG will contest each and every election in Goa, whether it is Lok Sabha, whether it is zilla panchayat, municipality elections... we will run a campaign,” said Parab. “We need more people to be with us. We want everyone’s mentorship, guidance. We are young and we want people to guide us.” Parab said that St Andre candidate Viresh Borkar’s victory has enthused the party workers, or boys as Parab refers to them. RG, which garnered a vote share of 9.5% or over 92,000 votes, has set itself a target of winning 3.5 lakh votes in the next elections. “We will contest the panchayat elections. People want us to get into the system, to participate in the gram sabhas, to increase the attendance and to take up issues. The panchas and the sarpanchas have destroyed Goa, given NOCs, given voting permissions to migrants and allowed hill-cutting,” he said. Those who voted for Congress, AAP, TMC and other parties, are vote splitters,” said Parab
PANAJI: Proving everyone wrong, from pollsters to political pundits who predicted a fractured verdict, BJP reached the half-way mark in the 40-member House on its own without an alliance and one short of a majority—the second highest number of seats in the party’s political history in Goa. Successfully beating anti-incumbency and overcoming resentment and rebellion through its development and double-engine plank, BJP is all set to form the government for the third consecutive term in the tiniest state. This election also saw AAP and Revolutionary Goans open their account with two and one seat, respectively, while new entrant TMC drew a blank. A division of votes between TMC, AAP and RG led to the defeat of Congress in many constituencies, reducing its strength to 11 members. While BJP’s performance by way of seats jumped from 13 to 20 compared to the last election, its vote share went up by only 0.8%—from 32.5% in 2017 to 33.3%. On the other hand, Congress’s vote share dropped from 28.5% five years ago to 23.5%. A political analyst said this was due to the presence of TMC and RG, and due to the weak organisation in constituencies from where they lost 15 MLAs during the last term. Three Independents who got elected—Dr Chandrakant Shetye (Bicholim), Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco (Curtorim) and Antonio Vas (Cortalim)—have all extended support to BJP, state party president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said. Goa’s oldest regional party MGP, which won two seats, will also be part of the new government, BJP’s Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said. “MGP has given a letter of support to BJP,” he said. Fadnavis said the BJP legislature party meeting was likely to be held on Friday to select the leader. “BJP wants its national leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony and after coordinating with other states, dates would be finalised for organising it,” he said. The election also proved chief minister Pramod Sawant’s leadership abilities and his coming out of the shadows of former CM Manohar Parrikar. His gamble of betting on winnable candidates by importing them and dropping some of the sitting MLAs in their favour paid off, as was evident in Mayem, Pernem, Sanvordem and Vasco. Congress, which was confident of making a comeback after a decade of being out of office, suffered a major setback and was relegated to the second position with only 11 seats and will have to sit in the opposition for the third term in a row. In 2017, it had secured 17 seats but had failed to form the government and during the term saw 14 of its MLAs join BJP. “Congress seems to have failed to project itself as a formidable and best alternative to oust the BJP government. Also, it was not aggressive in its campaign to fight BJP in the last couple of months,” said a political commentator. MGP, which was posing itself as a kingmaker and had a pre-poll tie-up with TMC, suffered a setback as it had to be content with just two seats and former deputy chief minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar’s vow of this being a Parivarthan election failed to find any takers. Sawant, who was under criticism not only from the opposition but also from his own party functionaries, some of whom rebelled, emerged tall. For the first time in nearly three decades, BJP went to polls without its master strategist Parrikar and the entire campaign was managed by the central leadership. For the first time, Union home minister Amit Shah went campaigning door-to-door in constituencies which appeared to be slipping away. PM Narendra Modi also addressed a public meeting in Mapusa providing a booster dose to the karyakartas. A political analyst said BJP seems to have successfully managed to convince the voters, with the resources at its disposal, that instead of a divided opposition, voting for the saffron party with “double engine” was best for Goa’s development. Notwithstanding the damage caused to its image after the party preferred “winnable candidates” from others to its loyal karyakartas, BJP had the last laugh as most of the “imports” got people’s mandate. Its strategies to keep the opposition divided, get winnable candidates on its side and create a narrative that BJP deserves another term, seems to have been successful, a political watcher said. What also gave an advantage to BJP was that the opposition was not aggressive enough to highlight the “bad governance, Covid mismanagement, defections, non-resumption of mining and corruption” of the government, especially in the post-Parrikar era. Congress central observer for elections P Chidambaram said it was also their inability to communicate effectively to people to stop the division of votes that led to its loss.
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Atanasio Monserrate has managed to beat former Goa CM Manohar Parikar's son Utpal Parrikar. Monserrate (6,531 votes) won by a slim margin of 675 votes against Parrikar (5,857 votes), who contested as an independent candidate after being denied ticket by the ruling party. Despite emerging beating Parrikar junior in the close fight, Monserrate, also know as Babush among his follower, is not a happy man. He is upset and feels that many party supporters did not vote for him, according to media reports. Monserrate said he has informed to the top party leaders about it. Monserrate won Panaji assembly seat as a Congress candidate in by-elections after Manohar Parrikar's death in 2019. Monserrate, an accused in a rape case, later joined the BJP. Utpal Parrikar had contested as an independent candidate after BJP had denied him ticket from Panaji assembly seat.
PANAJI: According to the latest trends, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ahead in 20 seats while the Congress was leading in 11 seats in Goa. Goa assembly elections 2022 results live updatesThe counting of votes for 40 assembly seats in the state is under way. The MGP was ahead in two seats, the Aam Aadmi Party in two seats and independents in three seats. Tivim, Panaji, Shiroda, Mayem and Porvorim were among the seats were the BJP was leading. The counting of votes is being held amid tight security arrangements on Thursday.
PANAJI: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set to score a hattrick in the coastal state, Goa desk in-charge CT Ravi on Thursday said that they will decide chief ministerial face after a legislative party meeting. In the 40 seat assembly, BJP is leading on 18 seats, followed by Congress on 11, MGP on four seats, AAP on two seats, and others on five seats. "Congress makes false promises, BJP has done development. Our party is a structural party, we will decide the CM face after the results are out and post our legislative party meeting. The parliamentary board will decide," CT Ravi told ANI. The chief minister and BJP candidate Pramod Sawant who once again retains the Sanquelim constituency defeating Congress Candidate Dharmesh Saglani said that the BJP will form the government in Goa and they will take MGP and independent candidates with them. Sawant said that he has sought Goa Governor's appointment to stake a claim to form the next government. After the 2017 elections, Congress failed to form government despite emerging as the single largest party.
