Assembly election 2017: Goa CM resigns after BJP’s poor show in polls

Congress starts its account in the state with lead in 11 seats; BJP secures 8 seat.

The victory will help improve the BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha or upper house of parliament where the government is in a minority and has trouble pushing legislation.

It is interesting to note that history has been created for the BJP in Manipur this 2017 as this is the first time that the saffron party has been able to garner so much support from the local people of the state.

Naga Peoples Front (NPF) bagged four seats as in the last elections while National Peoples Party (NPP) also jumped from zero to four seats in this election, All India Trinamool Congress which bagged seven seats in the last elections along with Lok Jan Shakti Party and Independent, won just one seat each.

While Singh accepted that the party was in talks to form a coalition, he refused to specify the terms and conditions of the negotiations. The party has been forced to do a re-think about Parrikar after its sitting chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar lost.

The BJP leader said his party had received the largest vote share and was therefore making a bid to form a government. The ruling Congress is leading in only 14 seats. The BJP claimed to have the support of 22 MLAs.

“I appreciate Parrikar’s deep commitment and love for the soil of Goa, but he should be sporting enough to accept the fact that the BJP has received drubbing under his leadership”, he said. Sharmila’s political debut proved a non-starter as two other PRJA nominees also suffered humiliating defeats.

Another prominent Congress victor was state minister Akoijam Mirabai from Patsoi. They slammed the BJP for befooling the public by luring them with false promises, and tried to parry questions on the party’s performance in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

After the defeat of the BJP chief ministerial candidate T. Chaoba, he said that the national leaders will select the leader.

Another prominent BJP loser was former director of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences L. Fimate in border constituency, Tipaimukh. He, however, stressed more on allegations of corruption against the Congress government and promised to bring development that Ibobi brought to the people in 15 years “in just 15 months”. They were clearly not convinced with the repeated assurances by senior BJP leaders that the state’s territorial integrity would not be tinkered with. A retired professor who did not wish to be named claimed that, “Money had a big role to play in the elections with both the BJP and Congress trying to outdo each other”.