17 Congress 13 BJP 3 Goa Forward 3 MGP 1 NCP 3 Independents
the goan I network
PANAJI
It promises to be a long and laborious government formation process with both the Congress, which emerged the single largest party in the State with 17 seats, and the BJP significantly behind at 13 claiming they were going to form the government.
The final figures placed local parties the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) with three seats each while the Aam Aadmi Party drew a blank despite fielding the most number of candidates setting the stage for horse-trading.
Despite having 13 seats, the BJP is counting on mending fences with the MGP and buying over the GFP and another two independents to secure the majority.
While the Congress has pledged that it will stake claim to form the government on Monday and approach the Governor, the party after a high-level meeting including central observer Digvijaya Singh has called for a meeting of all its MLAs to chalk a future course of action.
The BJP on the other hand also claimed that it was best placed to form the government with Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar saying that it will be their government that will materialise.
If anything, the results have signalled a windfall for ‘king-makers’ with the Goa Forward Party, which has a bitter hate relationship with the Congress winning three seats, and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party which broke ties with the BJP also winning three seats.
The Goa Vikas Party, the Goa Su-raj Party, the United Goans Party, Goa Suraksha Manch and the Shiv Sena all drew a blank.
Perhaps most indicative of the mood of the State was the fact that Chief Minister as well as, as many as five ministers and one former minister lost at the hustings with Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar losing by more than seven thousand votes.
Contests that were billed to be close fights like that of between the BJP’s Guruprasad Pawaskar and Independent Rohan Khaunte in Porvorim resulted in the latter walking away with a margin of 4,213 votes. Jayesh Salgaocar who was very much the underdog against Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar walked away with a margin of 2137 votes while, the Goa Forward’s Vinoda Paliencar and Dayanand Mandrekar resulted in the the former walking away with a margin of 1,441 votes.
There were several close fights too in Cuncolim, word first spread that Joaquim Alemão had won the election by a wafer thin margin. However, after a recount which included the counting of the
