A record 81.77 per cent of the registered 3,88,432 voters cast their ballot at the historic Opinion Poll on January 16, 1967. Anti-merger won by a margin of 34,021 votes as it got 1,72,191 votes against the 1,38,170 cast in favour or merger.
Significantly, Salcete was truly the turning point as all five constituencies voted overwhelmingly against the merger thus giving an unassailable lead of 40,275 votes. In Benaulim and Curtorim, not even 1,000 votes were cast in favour of merger with Benaulim recording the lowest vote of 629 for merger.
In North Goa, Siolim, Aldona and Mapusa where the anti-merger votes were more than the pro-merger. While Sattari piled on the prop merger votes wiping out the anti- merger resistance, the tide turned from Panjim, Southwards till it reached the Southernmost constituency of Canacona where the pro-merger forces were ahead.
How Goa did not end up as a small district in Maharashtra, as MGP wanted
What is Opinion Poll Day: The then ruling Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), wanted to merge Goa with Maharashtra; the United Goans Party (UGP) then opposition party led by Dr Jack de Sequeira won the referendum to maintain Goa’s unique identity; The day is observed as ‘Asmitai Dis’
After Goa’s liberation, the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru proposed that Goa, Daman and Diu would remain a union territory for 10 years after which the people would decide their future
Following a three-day satyagraha by Roque Santana Fernandes from Velim, the first elections for the Union Territory of Goa, Daman & Diu was held on December 9, 1963, to elect 30 MLAs. At these elections, the MGP won 16 seats while the UGP won 12 seats
Buoyed by these results, MGP leader Dayanand Bandodkar, who was elected the first Chief Minister, proposed merging the union territory with neighbouring Maharashtra.
However, Dr Sequeira opposed it and lobbied hard with Nehru reminding him of his promise and pressed for a referendum as against the MGP’s demand that the Legislative Assembly decide the matter.
Following Nehru’s death on May 27, 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Prime Minister and MGP along with Congress leaders from Maharashtra called on him to merge Goa with Maharashtra. Dr Sequeira met Shastri with a delegation at Bangalore during the All India Congress Committee meeting and pressed against the merger.
Shastri died suddenly at Tashkent in 1966 and Indira Gandhi became the next prime minister. Dr Sequeira met her along with then Congress President in Goa, Purushottam Kakodkar and prevailed upon her to let the people decide their fate. Finally the then President of India assented to the Goa, Daman and Diu (Opinion Poll) Bill on December 16, 1966, and the date for holding it was fixed for January 16, 1967.
Those proposing the merger used mainly Marathi for their campaign and even brought cultural troupes from Maharashtra to the campaign. To counter this, those opposing the merger used tiatrists and even formed the Jai Gomantak Kala Pathak, a special cultural troupe having mostly Hindus with Ulhas Buyao leading it. Manoharrai Sardessai’s poems were converted into songs by Buyao to stir people to protect Goa and its identity and those songs are popular even today.
A Marathi daily called Rashtramat was launched mainly to educate the Marathi reading population against the merger with Chandrakant Keni as its editor. Uday Bhembre wrote a column titled ‘Brahmastra’ which was not only fiery but also very influential.