Panaji: Polling began Monday morning in Goa, where 301 candidates are in the fray for the 40 Assembly seats, election officials said.
Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm in the single-phase elections in the coastal state, the officials said. Over 11 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes. They include 9,590 persons with disabilities, 2,997 aged over 80 years, 41 sex workers and nine transgenders. The counting of votes will take place March 10. Goa is witnessing a multi-cornered contest, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other smaller parties vying to make a mark on the state’s electoral scene.
To check the spread of COVID-19, voters have been provided hand gloves at the polling stations, an election official said. Over 100 ‘all-women’ polling booths have been set up in the state for the convenience of female voters.
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. The average number of eligible voters per booth in the state is 672, which is the lowest in the country, a poll official said. The Vasco Assembly constituency has the highest number of 35,139 eligible voters, while the Mormugao seat has the lowest number of voters at 19,958, he said.
The Congress and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) are fighting the election in alliance, while the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has tied-up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to contest the polls. The Shiv Sena and the NCP had also announced their pre-poll alliance, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is contesting without a tie-up with any other political party. The Revolutionary Goans, Goencho Swabhimaan Party, Jai Mahabharat Party and Sambhaji Brigade are also in the poll fray, besides 68 independent candidates There are 105 all-women polling booths, also called as the ‘pink booths’. Earlier, there were was a pink booth in every constituency, the official said. The state had recorded 82.56 per cent turnout during the 2017 elections. The Congress then won 17 seats.
The BJP, which bagged 13 seats, was quick to stitch up an alliance with some regional outfits and independents to form government in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah campaigned in the last one month for the saffron party, which has not entered into any pre-poll alliance in Goa. The Congress has fielded 37 candidates, while ally GFP has fielded three. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned for the party in the coastal state.
