PANAJI
Rather than their partners, Goa's 11.56 lakh voters will be preoccupied on Monday, February 14, with their date with democracy and getting to their polling station to cast their vote and choose their representative in the 40-member Goa legislative assembly.
Campaigning for the 40 Assembly seats in Goa had concluded at 5 pm on Saturday last.
There are 301 candidates vying for the 40 seats in the Goa legislative assembly, with the currently ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bid to retain power contested by the Congress which is fighting in alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the MGP-Trinamool Congress alliance in a multi-cornered contest.
Action will begin at 7 am on Monday at 1,722 polling stations in 40 assembly constituencies wherein the 11.56 lakh voters will seal the fate of the contesting parties and candidates as well as that of the State for the next five years.
Voting will be held for 12 hours from 7 am to 7 pm with the last hour between 6 pm and 7 pm dedicated to voters who are Covid-19 positive.
The Election Commission has scheduled counting and results for March 10 after all phases of the election being held in five States ends.
According to data, the average number of eligible voters per booth in the state is 672, which is the lowest in the country. 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.
To check the spread of Covid-19, voters will be provided hand gloves at the polling stations. More than 100 ‘all-women’ polling booths have also been set up for the convenience of female voters. As many as 81 flying squads are also operational across the State.
To avoid overcrowding in view of Covid pandemic, 80 more polling booths have been added this time.
10 polling stations have been decorated using eco friendly material while 105 pink booths will be managed by women polling officials.
A total of 301 candidates are in the fray with maximum 13 being from Siolim. Sanquelim is closely followed with 12 candidates.
As per the final electoral roll as on January 28, 2022, the total voters registered in the State of Goa are 11,64,522 of which 5,66,531 are males, 5,97,982 are females and 9 are transgenders. Overseas number 78 while service voters are 298.
Campaigning for these elections had been truncated due to the restrictions of large rallies and other electioneering modes like road-shows and rallies being banned due to the Omicron variant driven third wave of the Covid pandemic.
The BJP had brought in a galaxy of their national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
For the Congress, its star campaigner Rahul Gandhi led the campaign. For the AAP its National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made more than a dozen pit-stops in the State over the last six months peddling his 'welfare model'.
New entrant TMC which made a high-decibel pitch four months ago struck an alliance with MGP and the two parties campaigned aided by over a dozen MPs and leaders including the party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Meanwhile, enforcement agencies and election officials mostly drawn from the Goan bureaucracy have been out on the streets to curb Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations and distribution of freebies, cash, liquor among other inducements to voters.
