PANJIM: The high-voltage election campaign for the two Lok Sabha seats and three Assembly constituencies, which go to the polls on April 23, will end on Sunday at 5 pm.
There are 28 candidates in the fray – 12 for Lok Sabha seats and 18 for the by-elections in Mandrem, Shiroda and Mapusa – representing the BJP, Congress, AAP, Shiv Sena, GSM, MGP and Independent.
The election campaign saw BJP leading from front with over 300 corner and public meetings across the State. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BJP Mahila Morcha national president Vijayatai, Bollywood star Isha Kopikar were amongst the star campaigners for the party.
BJP has fielded Shripad Naik (NG) and Narendra Sawaikar (SG) for the Lok Sabha elections and Joshua D’Souza (Mapusa), Dayanand Sopte (Mandrem) and Subhash Shirodkar (Shiroda) for the Assembly by-polls.
On Saturday, it was a show of strength by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Goa, with all the coalition partners – BJP, Goa Forward Party and Independents coming together addressing a poll rally in support of Sawaikar.
On the other hand, it was a low-profile campaign for Congress in the absence of any star campaigners. No national leaders landed in Goa to woo the voters. The campaign was managed by the local leaders, including MLAs.
However, the opposition got the biggest support from the MGP, which is in alliance with the BJP in government. MGP leader Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar campaigned for the Congress South Goa Lok Sabha candidate Francisco Sardinha. Goa’soldest political outfit has extended its support to the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls and by-elections in Mapusa.
MGP has fielded a candidate in Shiroda, its party president Pandurang (Deepak) Dhavalikar. Congress has Girish Chodankar (NG), Francisco Sardinha (SG) as candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and for the by-elections it is Sudhir Kandolkar (Mapusa), Babi Bagkar (Mandrem) and Mahadev Naik (Shiroda).
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also addressed two poll rallies in South Goa in support of the party candidate from the constituency, Elvis Gomes. The party has fielded Pradeep Padgaonkar in North. They also have candidates in two Assembly constituencies.
During the campaign process, flying squads seized almost Rs nine crore worth items including cash, liquor, drugs, water tanks and others.
