In sussegado Goa, silent voters confound parties

The tiny coastal state, generally associated with laid back lifestyle, clocked a whopping 76.82 percent voting, a bump of nearly 20 percent plus votes compared to the 2009 general elections when Goa recorded only 55 percent voting. [caption id=“attachment_1477251” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Voters standing in line in Goa. AFP[/caption] Political parties as well as journalists have attributed the huge swell in turnout on the “silent voter”, a phenomenon they use to describe voters who have cast ballot, without giving anyone an inkling about which EVM button they would be punching in. According to North Goa Congress candidate Ravi Naik the unexpected manner in which the voters stepped out to vote in Goa, underlined their eagerness to punish the incumbent government. “The people are eager to vote against this government. That is why we have seen such a huge number of people turning out to vote,” Naik told Firstpost. He said despite the overwhelming campaign by the BJP as well as the overt and covert threats made by ruling party, the silent voter was in his favour. “You can see it when you meet them. The smiles they give you are enough of an indicator,” Naik said. Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar on the other hand tries to appropriate the silent voter for the BJP. Like Ravi, for Parrikar too, all it takes is a smile to know if the voters at polling booths are thinking favourably about his party. “They are silent because they do not know you. We understand it. When they smile at us, we know it is our vote,” Parrikar told reporters in Panaji. Govind Gaude, an independent candidate contesting from the South Goa seat, claims that big mainstream political parties have a lot to fear from the silent voter. “People wary of big parties which means well for us Independents,” Gaude said. Journalist Ashley do Rosario, who has covered several general elections over the last couple of decades, claims that the silent voter phenomenon was more pronounced this time round and that it could trigger a result which could surprise everybody. The massive turnout he says is in complete contradiction to the election campaign of nearly all political parties which have lacklustre and devoid of enthusiasm. “We could have an element of surprise in the North Goa constituency result because of there is just too much of a contradiction. Even political parities like the Congress and the BJP do not really know what to expect, although they spout the usual bravado about ‘winning confidently’,” do Rosario said. As many as 1,057,499 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in North Goa and South Goa constituencies. The electorate is evenly balanced between men and women and 12.88 percent are in the 18-25 year age group. The voting which began at 7 am was carried out across 1,622 polling booths which had been set up. The main contenders for the North Goa seat are sitting MP and BJP candidate Shripad Yesso Naik, Congress candidate Ravi Naik and Dattaram Desai from the Aam Aadmi Party. Aleixo Reginaldo from the Congress and Narendra Savoikar from the Bharatiya Janata Party will fight it out for the South Goa seat.