Polling for the 40 seats in Goa Assembly begins tomorrow

With campaigning for the 40 Assembly seats in Goa wrapping up on Saturday, the state will hold a single-phase election on Monday. In a multi-cornered political contest in Goa, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces challenges from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, and Aam Admi Party (AAP).

The BJP presently has 17 legislators in the Goa Assembly, with legislators from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Vijay Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party (GFP), and three independents supporting them. The GFP and MGP each have three MLAs in the legislature, whereas Congress has 15 MLAs.

In the Goa elections, a total of 301 candidates from various political parties are competing.

Along with the Shiv Sena, the ruling BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party are the key challengers in Goa's Assembly elections.

Utpal Parrikar, the son of former Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar, is running for the Panaji Assembly seat as an independent candidate. After being refused a seat in the Panaji Assembly constituency, he resigned from the BJP.

Atanasio "Babush" Monserrate, a former member of the Congress party, has been nominated by the BJP for the Panaji seat. In 2019, he and nine other MLAs defected from Congress to join the BJP.

The Panaji Assembly seat is significant in the state's electoral affairs. Manohar Parrikar, a former Union Minister for Defence who represented Panaji, served as the state's Chief Minister for three terms.

The top leaders of various political parties campaigned vigorously in Goa.

P Chidambaram, a senior Congress leader, and AICC in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao canvassed in Goa, seeking support for projects carried out by previous Congress-led governments and blasting political adversaries for obstructing the welfare of the state's citizens.

Girish Chodankar, the president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, also sent out a video greeting to Goa voters. He recalled prior efforts in the state by the Congress-led government.

Similarly, other BJP, Congress, and TMC candidates, as well as candidates from other political parties, submitted video messages showcasing their constituency's development efforts.

Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP's national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister, has offered cash support to every woman over the age of 18 as well as other incentives to numerous communities if his party wins power in the state.

Aaditya Thackeray, the head of the Shiv Sena, said on Saturday that Maharashtra's model of good governance should be copied in all other states.

Amit Palekar, a lawyer turned politician, has been named the AAP's Chief Ministerial candidate for the Goa Assembly elections.

On March 10, the poll-bound state of Goa will have its votes counted.

On Monday, polling will take place in all 70 Assembly seats in Uttarakhand, 40 districts in Goa, and 55 seats in Uttar Pradesh, with the counting of votes taking place on March 10. While the elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases, those in Uttarakhand and Goa will be held in just one.

Meanwhile, invoking a significant improvement in the COVID-19 situation, the Election Commission further eased pandemic-related restrictions on assembly election campaigning in five states on Saturday, allowing padayatras with a limited number of people and increasing the number of hours campaigning can be done in a day. According to the poll panel, election campaigns can now take place between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., rather than the prior hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., while adhering to all Covid-appropriate behaviour and state disaster management authorities' regulations.

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