Tuesday’s results in Goa have sent out a message to state-based parties like the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Shiv Sena that Goa’s electorate is unlikely to be influenced by the narrow linguistic identity.
Playing the Kannadiga card in a state where the Konkani identity is under threat from migration earned no returns for JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda who fielded 12 candidates in this election.
The former prime minister campaigned in Vasco, Cortalim and Mormugao trying to rally the Kannadiga vote, but to little effect, it would seem.
In Cortalim, the JD(S) candidate Mallamma Bidari managed a mere 342 votes. In Mormugao the JD(S)’ Metti Siddappa took just 918 votes from the “secular” camp, with most damage to the Congress coming from its rebel in Save Goa Front (SGF). The BJP managed to clinch this seat after the split in the vote. In eight other constituencies, JD(S) candidates, including its Goa unit president Vinayak Naik struggled to touch one per cent of the vote. Mr Naik, a former socialist got 105 votes.
Two constituencies where the JD(S) fared fairly well was in Mapusa and Vasco. This again, purely because it fielded Congress rebels Subhash Narvekar and Carlos Almeida against the official NCP candidates. Mr Narvekar’s brother Congress minister Dayanand Narvekar openly campaigned for him but to no avail.
The BJP retained Mapusa with a huge margin and the NCP managed to take Vasco.
JD(S) workers in Goa told this newspaper that the party had pumped in huge amount of funds into its campaign. One candidate who ran a couple of advertisements in the local media to promote himself ended up using a large chunk of the funds to reconstruct his house.