The ruling BJP in Goa just scraped through in the elections for the zilla panchayat constituencies despite the lack of a united Opposition, with the results leaving many BJP workers, including the Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, worried.
Out of the two zilla panchayats, spread equally over 50 constituencies with 25 seats in the north and south each, results declared on Friday showed the BJP and its coalition partners, narrowly scraped through the South Goa ZP winning 13 out of the 25 seats, while in north Goa, considered bastion of the BJP, the ruling alliance could clock only 12 seats out of 25.
It is, however, expected to emerge on the ruling side with the support of at least one independent candidates to rule the north Goa ZP.
The Congress as well as the Nationalist Congress Party had boycotted the poll, after the BJP-led coalition Government decided to hold the polls on political party lines.
Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar, however, defended his party’s performance, but also added that some of the losses had also taught the party significant lessons.
“Our coalition has won in south Goa, while in north Goa we have a queue of Independents waiting to support us… We may have lost in some places, but those losses are educative and will teach us how to put things right in the future,” Parsekar said.
The BJP’s lackluster victory coming as it does after a wave of victories in the State and parliamentary polls, is now being blamed on Parrikar’s elevation to the Centre.