Congress, at the end of the third round of counting at noon, was leading in Goa South constituency with a thin margin of two thousand votes. In the North Goa constituency, BJP’s Shripad Naik was set to win for the fifth time maintaining a comfortable margin of over 27,000 votes.According to a FirstPost report, a senior poll official has claimed that the final verdict on the Lok Sabha polls in Goa is expected to come late night on Thursday as manual counting of VVPAT slips from five booths of each assembly segment has to be taken up to match figures.The state is simultaneously also counting votes for four assembly seats – Panaji, Mapusa, Mandrem and Shiroda – where by-polls were held along with the Lok Sabha election on April 23.The by-polls in Panaji and Mapusa were necessitated due to the death of sitting MLAs Manohar Parrikar and Francis D’Souza, respectively, and in two other seats due to the resignation of Congress legislators.Goa, India’s smallest state with just two constituencies – North Goa and South Goa – went to polls on April 23. In the 2014 general elections, the state had elected BJP candidates from both its constituencies.For the BJP in Goa, this election was particularly challenging as it fought without its two-decade-long star-campaigner Manohar Parikkar. After battling cancer for a few years, former CM and Union minister Parikkar died on March 17, just a month before the elections.In the state’s North Goa constituency, this election, BJP’s four-time MP Shripad Naik was pitted against Congress state president Girish Chodankar. Naik had won big in 2014 parliamentary election with a margin of over one lakh votes.In its South Goa seat, BJP’s MP Narendra Sawaikar has contested against former Congress MP Francisco Sardinha. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), with a large vote bank in the Ponda region of the constituency, is backing the Congress this time. In the past elections, MGP was BJP’s ally.Also watch | Goa: Tourism Hotspot but No Drinking Water for Future GenerationsThere are 12 candidates in the fray for the two Lok Sabha constituencies.Political analysts have suggested that the BJP would have it difficult to retain both its seat in the state owing to several issues like unemployment, excessive mining and environment.This election, the state has registered 72.04% voting which is lesser compared to the 76.86% registered during the 2014 parliamentary elections. Along with the two Lok Sabha seats, by-elections to three assembly constituencies were also held simultaneously in the state.
