Team Herald
PANJIM: The fate of sitting BJP MPs Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar will be revealed on Thursday, as after a 30-day break, the electronic voting machines will be opened and the votes counted. They have beenchallanged by Congress’ Girish Chodankar and Francisco Sardinha, and AAP’s Pradeep Padgaonkar and Elvis Gomes.
Along with the elections to the two Parliamentary seats, four by-elections to Assembly constituencies – Mandrem, Mapusa, Shiroda and Panjim – were also held, and the results will be known by Thursday afternoon.
The main contenders – Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress – have claimed that they will win the Lok Sabha and the Assembly by-polls.
Interest is high in the results of the four by-elections, as this could determine the fate of the government. The BJP and Congress are at 14 seats each in the Assembly, with the former leading a coalition government supported by three Goa Forward Party MLAs and three Independents. There is also one MGP and one NCP MLA in the House. The results could impact the government.
The by-poll to the Panjim Assembly seat has evoked keen interest, as the constituency has been held by the BJP since 1994, with former chief minister Manohar Parrikar as the MLA. The by-poll was necessitated by his death in March this year.
Similarly, the by-election in Mapusa was due to the death of for dy chief minister Francis D’Souza, while the by-polls in Shiroda and Mandrem were due to the resignations of Congress MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte who then joined BJP.
