BJP will win both Goa seats with over 50 per cent votes: Party state chief Tanavade

Panaji: BJP will win the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa with more than 50 per cent of the votes cast, claimed its state chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade on Friday, calling the Congress a directionless party without any leader.

The BJP has a track record that whenever it has won the Lok Sabha elections in Goa, it has bagged more than 50 per cent of votes, he told PTI.

“The party candidates will get more than 50 per cent votes cast in the upcoming elections,” he said.

The two Lok Sabha seats in Goa – South Goa and North Goa – will go to polls in the third phase on May 7 and votes will be counted on June 4.

BJP has fielded Union minister Shripad Naik from North Goa and businesswoman Pallavi Dempo from South Goa. The Congress’ Ramakant Khalap and Viriato Fernandes will face off with Naik and Dempo, respectively.

Tanavade said the party wishes voter turnout in both constituencies to cross 75-80 per cent.

He said that though the BJP secured a 33 per cent vote share in the 2022 Goa assembly elections, the voting pattern differs in parliamentary polls.

According to the website of Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer, the coastal state has 11.6 registered voters – 5.7 lakh in North Goa and 5.9 lakh in South Goa constituencies.

Asked why Dempo was picked as their candidate from South Goa, ignoring leaders who have been with the BJP for years, Tanavade said she has been a member of the party for long.

“When her name was announced as a candidate, she came with the receipt of the membership,” he said.

Tanavade said that the Dempo family never had any party position but they were always a well-wisher right from 2012 during the tenure of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar.

While her husband Shrinivas Dempo has been associated with the party, Pallavi Dempo too has participated in several BJP functions, Tanavade said.

“She is here as an independent woman and through her own capacity, she has been active in the field of social work,” Tanvade said.

Pallavi Dempo, he said, has now announced that she would be opening her offices in Margao and a few other areas in South Goa so that she would remain connected with the voters.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress’ Francisco Sardinha had won in South Goa.

The BJP Goa chief said that the Congress is no longer a match for his party.

“Congress will find out their actual voter base after this election,” he said, adding that Congress is a directionless party without any leader.