log on to thegoan.net ON PAGE 2 WEDNESDAY JUNE 5, 2024 @thegoanonline Facebook.com/thegoan The Goan E-Paper (Playstore/IOS) 14 pages PRICE ` 10 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME IX, NO.349 Instagram.com/thegoanonline RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 RGP not impressive in Salcete but makes inroads in hinterland INDIA bloc experiment pays rich dividends in South Goa Salcete stands behind Congress, gives Viriato nearly 63K vote lead Capt Viriato’s ‘surgical strike’ repels determined BJP attack Congress turncoats, INDs struggle to deliver for BJP Pallavi fails to find much favour in Kamat’s migrantdominated areas ‘Abki baar 400 paar’ falls below par POLL PULSE: NDA SCORES WIN THAT FEELS LIKE DEFEAT FOR BJP; CONG FEELS VICTORIOUS IN DEFEAT INDIA leaders meet today to pick PM face: Uddhav INDIA bloc to take call today on approaching former partners: Rahul Sensex sinks over 4,000 points as anxiety grips markets 2 coalition-era veterans – Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar -- emerge Kingmakers *Figures are taken at the time of going to the Press and are likely to change BJP, Congress share spoils in Goa; Shripad wins North, Viriato South SAFFRON PARTY STRUGGLES WITH ITS VOTE SHARE IN SALCETE THE GOAN I NETWORK SOUTH GOA NORTH GOA VIRIATO FERNANDES SHRIPAD NAIK 2,50,799 > 1,39,446 2,15,672 PALLAVI DEMPO RAMAKANT KHALAP > PANAJI The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which rules with a dominant two-thirds majority in the House got a wake-up call of sorts from the electorate in Goa, handed a convincing defeat in South Goa, while it retained the North Goa Lok Sabha seat with a significantly reduced vote-share, although the margin was over one-lakh votes. In the North Goa seat, BJP’s Shripad Naik won again for a record sixth time in a row, defeating the Congress’ Ramakant Khalap by a 1.1 lakh vote margin. While Naik HOW THEY FARED 2,00,969 MANOJ PARAB RUBERT PEREIRA bagged 2,50,799 votes Khalap managed to poll 1,39,446. The third candidate in the fray, Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) president, Tukaram (Manoj) Parab, bagged a respectable 45,744 votes. Down South, the seat was won by Congress’s Captain Viriato Fernandes defeating the BJP’s Pallavi Dempo by a margin of 14,703 votes. Fernandes polled 2,15,672 votes 45,744 18,679 while Dempo’s tally was 2,00,969. Rubert Pereira of RGP managed to poll 18679 votes. BJP MUST INTROSPECT ON SOUTH DEBACLE >> See Edit pg 6 On the ground, the BJP leadership -- Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and State president Sadanand Shet Tanavade -- congratulated and celebrated Naik’s sixth consecutive win in North Goa at the party headquarters in Panaji. >Continued on P9 BJP fails to get majority, will need allies; INDIA bloc makes big gains PTI NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity. >> More reports on pg 8 The Bharatiya Janata Party, whose candidates had contested in the name of Modi, won or was ahead in 240 seats and will fall short of the 272 majority mark and need the support of allies in the party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for government formation, a far cry from the 303 and 282 seats it had won in 2019 and 2014 respectively to have a majority on its own. Jolt for BJP in UP, M’rashtra, W Bengal NEW DELHI: In a big setback for BJP, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal gave a severe jolt to the saffron party with its tally dipping drastically. At the time of going to Press, in UP, BJP was leading and winning in only 32 seats while Samajwadi Party and the Congress were at 38 and 6 respectively. In West Bengal, trends made it clear that Mamata Banerjee-led TMC was romping home with majority seats while in Maharashtra BJP was winning in 10 seats while its partners Shiv Sena and NCP were at 7 and 1 respectively. In Bihar too, the BJP was leading and had won in 12 seats while its main partner JD(U) too has the same number. In 2019, the BJP had won 17 seats while its partner JD(U) one less. With support from BJP’s key allies N Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which were leading or winning 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar respectively, and other alliance partners, the NDA appeared to be on course to bag around 290 seats in the >Continued on P9 BIG WINNERS  & LOSERS  Modi wins Varanasi with lowest victory margin Rahul beats Sonia’s 2019 victory margin in Raebareli; also wins Wayanad Anurag Thakur wins Hamirpur seat for fifth time Amit Shah wins Gandhinagar by over 7.44 lakh votes Smriti Irani defeated by Cong’s Sharma by 1,66,022 votes Rape accused Prajwal Revanna loses in Hassan by margin of 42,649 votes Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti defeated