By Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, May 16: Congress candidate Fransisco Sardinha won in the South goa Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival Narendra Sawaikar of BJP.
 
The south Goa constituency witnessed a close contest between both the national parties but finally Sardinha walked away with the victory of 12,516 votes.
 
Sardinha, sitting MP, had tough time even in the Congress strong hold of Salcette constituency where he managed to get slender margin.
 
Except for two constituencies of Nuvem and Velim in Salcette, he could not manage to get the whopping lead, which the congress was expecting.
 
But these two constituencies gave him much needed lead helping him to wade through crisis.
 
The BJP Candidate managed to get lead in their traditional stronghold of Sanvordem, Sanguem, Canacona, Mormugao and Vasco constituencies but could not fair well in other.
 
The Congress infighting, especially the rebellion by congress minister Churchill Alemao, was strongly visible in this election. Navelim constituency, a congress stronghold, represented by Alemao in the state legislative assembly, gave Sardinha lead of just five  votes.
 
Alemao was upset as his daughter, Valanka, was denied ticket in South Goa by congress and had chosen Sardinha as its candidate.
 
Congress Chief Minister Digamber Kamat and Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Subhash Shirodkar themselves had toured entire South Goa in support of Sardinha.
 
Kamat had even visited few of the villages where any chief minister had never visited.
 
Reacting to the victory immediately after the elections, the chief minister said that he is very happy that people of south Goa fully supported the congress.
 
“This is the victory of congress party policies and this indicates that the people were always supportive of having UPA government in the centre,” Kamat stated.
 
Sardinha reacted that he owes his victory to the congress party, nationally and in the state, which has always worked pro-people. “Once again, it is proved that the people have accepted the Congress,” he said.
 
BJP’s lost candidate Narendra Sawaikar said that although the party has lost it is a moral victory for them as they managed to slash the congress’ victory margin from 50,000 in last election to mere 12,000-odd.
 
“It was well fought election but congress distributed money in last two days prior to the polls which impacted our prospects,” Sawaikar said.
 
He said that the current election has proved that Congress is losing its south goa bastion and has lost its hold on many constituencies where BJP is leading