This Article is From Mar 11, 2022

Goa Election Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

BJP said it will form a full majority government in the coastal state with the support of the MGP and three independent MLAs.

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India News Reported by , Edited by
Overcoming anti-incumbency, the BJP on Thursday emerged as the single largest party in Goa by winning 20 assembly seats, just one shy of the halfway mark. Congress, on the other hand, finished second with 11 seats.

Here are some interesting facts about the Goa elections:

  1. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), which contested the Goa Assembly elections for the first time this year, failed to make a mark in the coastal state. The TMC took a plunge into Goa's electoral politics a few months before the polls, held on February 14, and contested in 26 seats in alliance with the MGP, the state's oldest regional outfit.

  2. Both Deputy Chief Ministers of Goa lost Assembly elections to their nearest Congress rivals on Thursday. Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar was defeated by Leader of Opposition and Congress candidate Digambar Kamat. Mr Manohar left MGP to join BJP in 2019. The second Deputy Chief Minister in the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet, Chandrakant Kavlekar, lost to Congress candidate Altone D'Costa in Quepem. Mr Kavlekar had won from Quepem in 2017 on a Congress ticket. He shifted to the BJP in 2019.

  3. The new Goa Assembly will have three pairs of husband and wife among its 40 members. Vishwajit Rane and his wife Divya won comfortably on BJP tickets from Valpoi and Poriem Assembly seats, respectively. Congress' Michael Lobo won from his traditional Assembly constituency Calangute, while wife Delilah won from Siolim, also on the Congress ticket. BJP's Atanasio Monserratte won from Panaji, while his wife Jeniffer won from Taleigao.

  4. Revolutionary Goans, Goa's youngest political party that started out as a social organisation of youngsters to preserve the rights of persons of Goan origin, won one seat. The Revolutionary Goans, which promises to be the voice of Goa's youth in the Assembly, was registered as a political party with the Election Commission of India recently in January

  5. Aleix Reginaldo, who won as Independent and extended support to the BJP, emerged as a key player in the Goa Assembly elections. He left Congress to join the Trinamool Congress in December 2021. However, he quit the TMC within a month, but was not taken back into Congress. Mr Reginaldo finally contested the election as an Independent candidate.

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  7. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made an entry into the Goa Legislative Assembly by winning two seats. AAP's Captain Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva won in Benaulim and Velim, respectively.

  8. 19 MLAs elected to the 40-member Goa Assembly are first-timers. Of these, eight MLAs are from Congress, five from the BJP, two from Aam Aadmi Party, two Independents and one from the Revolutionary Goans. 

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