BJP retained the North Goa seat, while wresting Congress' South Goa bastion. (File picture)
BJP won the Lok Sabha polls in Goa by defeating Congress in both the parliamentary constituencies in the state today.
BJP retained the North Goa seat, while wresting Congress' South Goa bastion.
Sitting MP and BJP candidate Sripad Naik won in North Goa defeating Congress' Ravi Naik, while Congress' Aleixo Lourenco Reginaldo lost to BJP's Narendra Sawaikar in South Goa.
Sripad Naik polled 1,76,124 votes as against 87,145 votes by Ravi Naik followed by votes of Dattaram Desai from AAP, who polled 11,791 votes.
In South Goa, Sawaikar polled 1,98,776 votes as against Reginaldo who got 1,66,446 votes. A woman candidate Swati Kerkar contesting on AAP ticket got 11,246 votes, Trinamool Congress Party leader Churchill Alemao polled 11,941 votes.
Goa had gone to polls on April 12 wherein 76.82 per cent voters exercised their franchise.
The record voting was nearly 21 per cent more than 2009 polls which saw 55 per cent of the voters cast ballot.
The 1998 Parliamentary polls had recorded 68 per cent votes.
Issues like special status for Goa, eradication of drug menace, resumption of legal mining and special package for the people affected with the then ban on the mining industry were high on the agenda of the political parties.
The voting percentage indicated that there was huge polling in the mining belt, where people were demanding resumption of economic activity in their belt. After the counting, it was indicated that the votes were polled in favour of the BJP in this belt.
However, the traditional voters of Salcette taluka with a predominantly Catholic population preferred to remain with the Congress party as Lourenco polled more votes as against the BJP candidate.