MARGAO: Of the several
new
faces Congress fielded in
South
Goa, only one managed to
win
.
Altone
D’Costa (
Quepem
) who defeated former deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar in his debut elections, was the party’s sole victorious new
face
.
Sankalp Amonkar (Mormugao) and Yuri Alemao (Cuncolim) who also won the polls for the first time, had contested earlier polls.
Among those new faces who lost narrowly are Amit Patkar (Curchorem), Savio D’Silva (Velim) and Rajesh Verenkar (Ponda).
Patkar lost to former power minister Nilesh Cabral by a slender margin of 672 votes. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had addressed Patkar’s public rally in Curchorem a few days ahead of the polls, which also helped him come within striking distance of victory. Patkar’s defeat notwithstanding, political observers said that his vigorous election campaign helped revitalise the Congress camp in Curchorem.
In Velim, Congress candidate Savio D’Silva was defeated by AAP’s Cruz Silva by a slim margin of 169 votes. AAP’s consistent groundwork in Velim over the last few years since it made its debut in the state’s assembly polls in 2017, paid dividends for the party this time.
Significantly, Filipe Nery Rodrigues, a former minister in the outgoing government, who contested on an NCP ticket, was pushed to a miserable fifth position, largely owing to a robust performance by RG.
Congress’ Rajesh Verenkar came a close third in Ponda where MGP’s Ketan Bhatikar lost to BJP’s Ravi Naik by a wafer thin margin of 77 votes. Verenkar closely trailed Bhatikar by less than 600 votes.
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