Team Herald
PANJIM: The by-polls for the Valpoi and Panjim Assembly constituencies will be held on August 23, two days before the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, and counting will be taken up on August 28. The seats had fallen vacant on March 16 and May 10, respectively.
With the announcement of the schedule by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday, the model election code of conduct comes into effect in North Goa district and will remain in force till the end of counting. The code restricts the government from making any political announcements that could influence voters in the constituencies going to the polls.
The poll notification will be issued on July 29, and the nomination process will begin. The last date for filing nominations is August 5. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on August 7 while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is August 9.
The election process has to be completed by August 31. Currently, there are 38 MLAs in the 40-member State Assembly.
The election for Valpoi constituency was necessitated after former Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane resigned within an hour of being sworn in as MLA and later joined the ruling BJP. He had tendered his resignation as MLA and member of the Congress on March 16. Rane is currently the Health Minister in the Manohar Parrikar cabinet.
In Panjim, BJP MLA Siddharth Kuncolienkar resigned on May 10 to pave the way for Parrikar to be elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly. Parrikar, who is a Rajya Sabha member from UP, was sworn in as Chief Minister of the BJP-led coalition government on March 14.
The Assembly election for the 40 seats was held on February 4. The results were declared on March 11 that saw BJP fall from 21 to 13 seats, whereas Congress sprung a surprise emerging as the single largest party with 17 seats. Despite this, the party failed to form the government.
The BJP cobbled a coalition with other regional parties and Independents to form a coalition government.
