NT Reporter Panaji
Despite having two MLAs, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which chose to contest the Zilla Panchayat elections on its own, failed to make a significant impact on voters.
The party managed to win only the Colva seat by a narrow margin of 73 votes and could not retain the Benaulim seat, which it lost to the Congress.
Ahead of the ZP elections, AAP was the first political party to announce that it would contest independently and to begin its campaign.
The decision was taken to assess the party’s grassroots strength ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
However, despite an early start and campaigning by national leaders, including national convener Arvind Kejriwal and a former Delhi chief minister, the party’s efforts did not translate into wider electoral gains.
AAP contested 42 seats and supported one Independent candidate.
In the 2020 ZP elections, AAP had won only one seat—Benaulim. Subsequently, the party entered the Goa Legislative Assembly by winning two seats—Velim and Benaulim.
In the ZP elections, both AAP MLAs, Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva, failed to secure the Velim seat and also lost Benaulim.
Party president Amit Palekar also failed to make an impact in St Cruz and Chimbel.
“People in Chimbel feared that the Mhaje Ghar scheme would be used against them,” Palekar said.
A senior political leader said AAP’s decision to go solo in the ZP elections did not go down well with party workers or the electorate.
“The party had managed to secure two seats in the 2022 assembly elections, but considering the ZP results it will now have to chalk out a new strategy for the upcoming assembly election for its survival,” the leader said.
Palekar said the BJP had not won the election on its own but due to the opposition’s inability to arrive at a seat-sharing understanding. “It is a lesson for us ahead of the 2027 assembly election,” he said.
