PANAJI
The D-day has finally arrived with counting of votes to be taken up from 8.30 am on Thursday and results of the February 14 elections to the 40-member Goa legislative assembly are expected to be known by noon.
Stakes are high. Most exit-poll projections are pointing to a hung verdict and a tight race between the two main contenders -- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress -- to emerge with higher numbers.
In the prevailing scenario, the two national parties are keeping a tight leash on their candidates and have engaged in high-optics political sparring over the last couple of days apparently to ensure their respective sides are battle-ready for the final bout to claim power at the Cabo Raj Bhavan.
The results meanwhile are expected to be out within three hours and Goa will know who its 40 new MLAs will be by noon or even earlier, according the Chief Electoral Officer, Kunal, IAS, who said counting for all the 40 constituencies will be taken up at once.
Kunal told journalists that service voters (postal ballots) will be taken up for counting first, followed by the ‘absentee voter ballots’ -- the facility provided for the first time to senior citizens, persons with disability and Covid-19 positive voters.
After half-an-hour of these postal ballots counting commencing, the EVMs will be taken up for counting in multiple rounds, Kunal added.
“We have given training to all counting personnel and our observers have also come from the Election Commission of India for all constituencies. We are hopeful that our counting process will be over by 10.30 am to 11 am. After that VVPAT mandatory counting will be taken up,” Kunal said.
The counting for constituencies in North Goa will be held at the Government Polytechnic campus in Altinho while the process for the South Goa constituencies will be held at the Damodar College campus in Comba-Margao.
Over the last couple of days, the State witnessed hectic political activity starting with the Congress first gathering its 37 candidates at the Bambolim beach resort on Tuesday and by Wednesday evening shifting them to a hotel in South Goa.
Owing to its bitter experience of 2017, when it choked at the post and let the advantage slip out despite emerging the single-largest party by delaying staking claim with the Governor, the Congress has this time marshalled some of its top national leaders to calibrate its post-results lunge for power.
Senior leader P Chidambaram, who was senior observer for the Goa election, and AICC’s Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao have been officially joined by Karnataka strongman D K Shivakumar to hand-hold the Goa Congress team and face the BJP adversary.
The BJP too is leaving nothing to chance. Sources said, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is personally monitoring the saffron party’s strategy and shot at retaining power. Maharashtra Opposition Leader Devendra Fadnavis will be arriving in the State on Thursday and is also expected to be joined by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who is familiar with the Goa political landscape.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant presided over a meeting of all its 40 candidates at the Taj Vivanta in the capital, where they are expected to stay overnight until the results are out on Thursday.
Meanwhile other political parties in the fray, including the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), besides others and winning Independents, could pepper the post-results scenario and add to the complexity of power end-game.
These parties are fancying their opportunity amid projections that the results will throw up a hung assembly.
The MGP, whose leader Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavlikar has engaged with both the Congress as well as the BJP, and had contested the elections in alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is being projected to win 3-4 seats.
Dhavalikar has come on record that his party would take a call on supporting either the Congress or the BJP after detailed discussions.
He has already met Chidambaram and Gundu Rao of the Congress and has admitted that his party is open to discussions with the BJP too.
The AAP which could also win some seats according to multiple exit poll projections, however, has not yet opened its cards although it is on record that it will under no circumstances align with the incumbent BJP.
Delhi legislator and AAP’s Goa in-charge Atishi has been in Goa since Sunday and has held several meetings with party candidates and office bearers to prepare for Thursday.
TMC’s top leaders including its General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien are also in Goa as is their collaborator Indian-Political Action Committee’s (I-PAC) Prashant Kishor. The NCP and the Shiv Sena also contested the elections in an alliance and have a few prominent candidates contesting -- former ministers Filipe Neri Rodrigues (Velim), NCP state president Jose Philip D’Souza (Dabolim) and Mickky Pacheco (Nuvem).
Meawnhile, political observers will be keenly watching the performance of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) led by Manoj Parab which has fielded candidates in 39 seats on an ultra-regional agenda.
