PANAJI
The ruling Bharatiya Janata party has increased its voting percentage by a mere 0.8 percentage points but has seen a massive increase in the number of seats it has won rising from 13 in 2017 to 20 in 2022.
Back in 2017 the BJP won 32.5% of the total votes polled and this time has won 33.31% of the total votes polled which has seen a huge increase in the number of seats thanks to narrow victories secured by candidates in several constituencies including Ravi Naik (Ponda) who won by 77 votes, Govind Gaude (Priol) who won by 213 votes, Ulhas Tuenkar (Navelim) won by 430 votes as well as narrow margins for Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who won by 666 votes, power minister Nilesh Cabral who won by 672 votes and Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate who defeated Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal by 716 votes.
The Congress, on the other hand, which had secured a polling percentage of 28.4% in 2017 has seen its polling percentage fall to 23.46% which also resulted in a fall in the number of seats.
The Congress sorely missed its secure seats in the form of the Valpoi and Poriem seats represented by the Ranes which this time went to the BJP as well as the Panaji and Taleigao seats which the Monserrates won also adding to the BJP’s tally.
The AAP which won 6.3% of the vote in 2017 has this time secured 6.77% of the vote largely the same as 2017 but this time has two seats to show for it, thanks to a narrow victory for its Velim candidate Cruz Silva.
The MGP which won 11.3% of the vote in 2017 has seen its vote share fall to 7.60%.
Interestingly the vote share of independents stood at 11.60 while ‘others’ was clubbed at 0.9%. This time ‘others’ which includes independents and the Revolutionary Goans Party has polled 19.4% which is the third highest if treated as a single entity.
The Nationalist Congress Party polled 1.84% while the Goa Forward Party polled 1.84% having polled 2.3% and 3.5% respectively back in 2017.
Voting percentages, however, count for little as in the first past the post system, it's only the number of seats that count.
In 2017 the Goa Forward had less than half those polled by the AAP in 2017 yet managed to win three seats while the AAP won none.
