New Delhi: With the Bharatiya Janata Party edging past the Congress, winning 20 seats against the latter’s 11, BJP leaders have announced that they will meet Goa governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai to stake claim to form the state government today itself.The BJP’s legislature wing was set to meet around 4 pm to decide on a leader. Thereafter, the party will reportedly stake claim to form the government.The BJP has already won 20 seats, including Sanquelim, won by chief minister Pramod Sawant and Valpoi, by state cabinet minister Vishwajit Rane. Meanwhile, the Congress has won 11; the Aam Aadmi Party has won two; the Goa Forward Party has won one, as have the the Revolutionary Goans Party; the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak has won two, and three seats have been won by independents.Congress’s lone remaining MLA in the assembly, former chief minister Digambar Kamat won the Margao seat. defeating deputy chief minister Ajgaonkar Manohar ‘Babu’ of the BJP.Notable independent candidate Utpal Parrikar, son of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, lost the Panaji seat to the BJP’s Atanasio Monserratte by the narrow margin of 674 votes. Parrikar had decided to contest as an independent after being denied a ticket by the BJP.Three independents who are leading have pledged support to the BJP; Chandrakant Shetye (Bicholim), Alex Reginaldo (Curtorim) and Antonio Vaz (Cortalim). Shetye us even said to have met with chief minister Sawant.The BJP, with the support of the three independents, is expected to meet the required 21-seat figure to form the government in Goa.Goa had been at the centre of most speculation after the exit polls predicted a hung assembly. Leaders of smaller parties have been mobilised to the state to forge alliances when needed.Counting of votes in the Goa assembly elections 2022 began at 8 am today. The state voted on February 14. A total of 301 candidates are in the the fray for the 40 assembly seats. Any party of alliance needs at least 21 seats to form the government.BJP leader and chief minister Sawant, who had been trailing behind Congress’s Dharmesh Saglani in the Sanquelim seat, went on to win the seat by a margin of around 1,000 votes. Sawant went on to mention that his party was in talks with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGK) to form an alliance.With both Sawant and Rane winning seats, the question of who will be named chief minister becomes interesting. When asked in an interview whether or not Sawant will continue to serve as chief minister, Rane said it was a “sensitive question”.The MGK, which has won one and is currently leading in one seat, had initially formed a pre-poll tie-up with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC).In addition to the BJP and the Congress – traditional rivals in the state – the Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, too, had been trying their luck this election.The Congress and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) are in alliance. The Shiv Sena and the NCP had also announced a pre-poll alliance, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP was contesting without a tie-up with any other political party.The prominent candidates include chief minister Pramod Sawant (BJP), leader of the opposition Digambar Kamat (Congress), former CMs Churchill Alemao (TMC), Ravi Naik (BJP), Laxmikant Parsekar (independent), former deputy CMs Vijai Sardesai (GFP) and Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP), late CM Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar and AAP’s CM face Amit Paleker.After the 2017 elections, though the Congress emerged as the single-largest party with 17 seats, the BJP, which had won 13 seats, allied with the MGP, GFP and two independent governments and formed the government. In July 2019, a group of ten Congress MLAs in the state led by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Chandrakant Kavlekar had merged with the ruling BJP, increasing the saffron party’s strength to 27 in the 40-seat house.This story, which was published at 12:30 pm on March 10, is being republished on the same date at 7:50 pm after all the votes have been counted.