PANAJI
As many as 587 nominations had been filed for the assembly elections on February 14, as filing of nominations came to an end on Friday. On the final day, a total of 254 filed their nominations. The scrutiny of nominations will be held on January 29.
Many of the 587 nominations include double nominations and nominations of dummy candidates, informed Additional Chief Electoral Officer Narayan Sawant. “The exact picture of constituency-wise candidates will be clear once some of the applicants withdraw their nominations.”
Sawant also stated that no violations in Covid guidelines were reported during filing of nominations and the entire process was smooth.
On Friday, a flurry of political activities was witnessed across the State with candidates busy submitting their papers to returning officers.
Among the prominent candidates to file their nominations on the last day included BJP candidates Tony Fernandes (St Cruz) and Anthony Barbosa (Curtorim), Congress candidates Carlos Ferreira (Aldona), Jitendra Gaonkar (Pernem), Kedar Naik (Saligao), Savil D’Silva (Velim), Sudhir Kandolkar (Mapusa), Tony Dias (Banaulim) and Vikas Prabhudesai (Porvorim).
For the AAP, its CM candidate Amit Palyekar (St Cruz) as well as Manoj Ghadi Amonkar (Sanquelim), Ritesh Chodankar (Porvorim), Sudesh Mayenkar (Kalangute), Uday Salkar (Tivim), Sunil Loran (Vasco) also filed their nominations on Friday.
The TMC candidates who filed their nominations were Anthony Menezes (Calangute), Benjamin Silva (Velim), Mahesh Bhandari (Dabolim), Adv Seoula Vas (Fatorda), Victor Gonsalves (St Cruz) and Jayesh Shetgaonkar (Mormugao).
MGP candidate Mahadev Khandekar (Sanquelim), NCP candidate and former minister Mickky Pacheco (Benaulim), RGP candidates Manoj Parab (Tivim) and Sujay Mhapsekar (Pernem), as well as Shiv Sena candidates Jitesh Kamat (Mapusa), Karishma Fernandes (Siolim) and Sagar Dhargalkar (Sanquelim) also filed their nominations.
Enthusiastic supporters came out in large numbers as candidates were filing nominations and police teams were stationed to prevent supporters from entering the premises along with candidates.
