Voting begins for Panaji bypoll

Polling for the Panaji Assembly seat bye-election began today at 8 a.m with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar among the first few to cast his vote.

The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of the former Goa Chief Minister Parrikar.

Parrikar cast his vote at a booth in the heart of the city.

The constituency has 22,057 voters, of whom majority are women (11,335).

The voting is taking place across 30 booths. There is no sensitive or hyper-sensitive booth in the constituency.

BJP's Siddharth Kuncolienkar, Congress's Surendra Furtado and two independents - Samir Kelekar and Sadanand Vaigankar - are in the fray for the bypoll.

Joint Chief Electoral Officer Narayan Navti today appealed to the people to come out in large numbers to vote.

A company of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has arrived in Goa for patrolling along with the state police.

During the 2012 state Legislative Assembly election, the constituency had witnessed 77.13% voting, giving a winning edge to Parrikar.

The counting of votes will be held on March 16 at Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) compound near here.