BJP union minister of state Shripad Naik won the North Goa (Panaji) seat, retaining it by a margin of around fiftyfive thousand votes. Naik, speaking to the Press, said the party's expected loss in the South Goa (Mormugao) seat was due to a "number of reasons".
BJP had snatched Goa's both seats in the last elections, in the face of a divided Congress. This time round, the Congress-NCP worked out an alliance, but this could not dent the BJP's chances in North Goa (Panaji) where the Congress-NCP candidate was ex-CM Dr Wilfred de Souza. Goa's result is a bit of a setback to the BJP-lead alliance headed by chief minister Manohar Parrikar. In South Goa, Congress's Churchill Alemao was leading by 41,000 votes and is expected to bag the seat. "We could expect him (Churchill) to win by 50,000," said senior journalist Gurudas Sawal, anticipating a result from the trends coming in. Counting, using the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the second time in Goa but the first-ever time in the entire nation, finished early. "We planned for lunch, but 10.30 is too early for any lunch," an official announced, while requesting counting officials to stay on. Meanwhile, television trends indicated severe setbacks nationwide to the BJP, worse than predicted in all the pre-result polls and exit-polls. -- FN in the North Goa counting hall at Panjim. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
