Adv Carlos congratulates Aldona, Sirsaim candidates for victories, laments split in opposition vote

MAPUSA: Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Monday congratulated Congress victorious Aldona ZP candidate Maria Menezes who emerged victorious with a margin of 274 votes.

He also congratulated Sirsaim Congress candidate Nilesh Kambli who won a seat that is otherwise represented by BJP MLA and minister Nilkanth Halarnkar. Two villages of Aldona constituency Nachinola and Moira fall in the Sirsaim ZP constituency.

He said the victory was especially sweet because it meant that the BJP that ruled the Aldona ZP seat until now was unseated.

“You have to remember that in our constituency, it was a BJP seat. We unseated the BJP. There was a personal campaign that was carried out against me. Besides, there were other players in the fray who took the opposition’s vote. Despite all this we have secured a victory,” Adv Carlos said.

Adv Carlos, however, lamented a split in the vote that led to an overall victory for the BJP.

“Did the BJP win on its own. BJP has an art of dividing the votes and expecting a victory. Across Goa, you can see on account of divisions they have won several seats by narrow margins. Of course when there is a good margin those seats you can say were won decisively. We have to acknowledge that. In other places wherever it is a victory, it is a vote by division. If you add up the opposition votes, they would have lost,” Adv Carlos said.
“If you see in Calangute, if you see in so many other seats, it is the split of the opposition’s vote that has given a victory to the BJP,” he also said.

He also said that the people taught a lesson to “another national party” that decided to go on its own, but which was “completely sunk” by the election results.