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Goa Election Results 2017: Congress may hit the magic number

BJP says it will await responses from smaller parties; Congress has the independents

Congress candidate Dayanand Raghunath Sopte (centre) celebrates after defeating BJP leader and Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar
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Congress candidate Dayanand Raghunath Sopte (centre) celebrates after defeating BJP leader and Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar
Sohini Das
Last Updated : Mar 12 2017 | 1:40 AM IST
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As Goans voted for a fractured mandate, the situation in this coastal state remains fluid, with the odds stacked in favour of the Congress. 

With the Congress winning 17 out of the 40 seats in the Goa Assembly, the governor is expected to call on the Goa  party chief, Luzinho Faleiro, to form a government. The BJP, on the other hand, has won 13 seats, though, with a higher vote share than the Congress. The BJP could neither better its seats tally (it had 21 seats in 2012 Assembly Elections), nor its vote share (2012 vote share was 34.68 per cent).  

Manohar Parrikar, Union defence minister and former Goa chief minister who was also the face of BJP in Goa  in the elections, said in a press conference in Panjim that while his party accepted the verdict, it would wait for the responses coming from smaller parties and even independent candidates. 

As expected, independents and smaller regional parties like the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the Goa Forward Party are likely to play a key role in government formation, something that Parrikar himself too hinted at. 

The Congress has been smart enough to have formed pre-poll understandings with independents from smaller parties like Atanasio Monserrate,  Francisco Mickky Pacheco and Vijai Sardesai. 

The BJP, on the other hand, had made tall claims of winning 26 seats on its own, securing 44 per cent of the votes polled. 

So what exactly went behind the party’s lacklustre performance in the election despite Parrikar parking himself in Goa for months. Observers feel that while poll planks like development or a national ‘face’ may work for bigger states, in Goa it all boils down to individual candidates. 

In BJP’s own words, “Our choice of candidates might have been wrong. People have rejected our candidates,” said a source in the party. 

What’s interesting here is that the sitting chief minister of Goa, Laxmikant Parsekar, lost to his one time confidant, Dayanand Sopte, from the Mandrem seat. In fact, six out of eight ministers in the fray lost elections to their rivals. 

“Everyone knows the candidates personally here, given the small size of constituencies. They know very well what work they are doing. Some ministers had lost the connect with people and had become arrogant. The verdict proves it,” said an industrialist in Goa. 

The Congress needs just four more seats (from its allies) to hit the magic number of 21.


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First Published: Mar 12 2017 | 12:56 AM IST

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