Goa may have hung assembly

Panaji March 11 (IANS) Goa appeared headed for a hung assembly on Saturday with the Congress winning two and the BJP three seats and leading in six and three other seats respectively.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a major blow when Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was defeated by Dayanand Sopte of the Congress at Mandrem by nearly 5 000 votes.

And at Poriem former Chief Minister and Congress candidate Pratapsingh Rane defeated his BJP rival Vishwajit K. Rane.

The Congress which was determined to oust the BJP after losing narrowly to it in the 2012 election also led in six other constituencies.

BJP candidates won from Mapusa Bicholim and Mayem and led in other four seats as Election Commission officials made known the results and trends from about 20 of the 40 assembly seats.

The Mapusa victor was Deputy Chief Minister Francis D Souza who defeated his Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) rival Vinod Phadke by 6 828 votes.

This is D Souza s sixth consecutive win in assembly elections. He is the senior most elected BJP legislator in the state.

Nationalist Congress Party s Churchill Alemao won from Benaulim.

The Goa Forward and the MGP won one seat each.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which had made a determined bid to take power in the coastal state could not win a single seat.

The same was the case with Goa Surakha Manch formed by ex-RSS leader Subhash Velinkar who had the Shiv Sena as his ally.

--IANS
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