Interference of religious leaders cost us in South Goa: BJP state chief

On Tuesday, Fernandes said: “The people of Goa have voted against unemployment, religious discrimination and abuse of power by the ruling party. I thank the people who have voted for me and the alliance partners for ensuring my victory. In the Assembly segment where the Prime Minister held a rally, the Congress got a lead of 3,000 votes.” Fernandes was also backed by AAP and Goa Forward Party, which are part of the INDIA bloc.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Shripad Naik, the incumbent North Goa MP and outgoing Union Minister of State for Tourism, won the North Goa constituency for a record sixth time, defeating his “friend” and former Union Law Minister Ramakant Khalap of the Congress by a comfortable margin of over 1.16 lakh votes.

Despite concerns of anti-incumbency, Naik, who claimed in the run-up to the polls that this would be his last parliamentary election, received over 2.57 lakh votes against Khalap’s over 1.41 lakh votes. In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Naik had defeated Khalap by over 36,000 votes.

In 2019, Congress’s Francisco Sardinha had defeated BJP’s Narendra Sawaikar by 9,755 votes in South Goa. In North Goa, Naik had defeated Congress’s Girish Chodankar by over 80,000 votes.

In South Goa, one taluka makes the difference

The fight for South Goa essentially narrowed down to Salcete, the constituency’s most populous taluka, which has a majority Christian population and accounts for more than 40 per cent of the seat’s voters.

The same taluka had stalled the BJP march in South Goa in 2019 as well.

This time, the party polled fewer votes than the Congress in seven (Nuvem, Fatorda, Curtorim, Benaulim, Navelim, Velim and Cuncolim) of the taluka’s eight assembly segments and managed only a small lead in Margao. In those eight Assembly segments, the Congress opened a gap of more than 62,000 votes over the BJP, which proved decisive.

At a press conference Tuesday evening, BJP state chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade said: “There was interference from dharmagurus (religious leaders) which led to people voting for the Congress in South Goa. But we accept the mandate of the people.”

This was likely a reference to a circular by Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao, the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, that urged Catholics to vote for candidates with secular credentials who are “committed to upholding the values enshrined in the Constitution”.

The Archbishop had also appealed to Catholics to exercise their vote rather than going to Velankanni, a prominent pilgrimage site in Tamil Nadu, on the eve of the single-phase election in Goa on May 7. The circular was issued after rumours surfaced on social media about a “conspiracy” to ensure Catholics miss the voting due to the pilgrimage. After the polling, some BJP leaders in the coastal state had criticised certain priests for “urging” people to vote for the Congress.

The BJP had been hoping that with defection of some former Congress leaders to its fold, it would be able to convert a sizable number of votes in South Goa, but this did not materialise.

In September 2022, eight MLAs switched to the ruling BJP from the Congress, including former chief minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira and Mormugao legislator Sankalp Amonkar.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said: “We have won one seat, lost one seat. I want to thank the people of Goa. People helped us win in North Goa by a margin of more than one lakh votes. We tried our best to win [in South Goa]. Whatever are the results, we accept the mandate. BJP will once again form the government at the Centre and Narendra Modi will take oath as Prime Minister for the third time.”