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Lok Sabha election 2019: Fight between BJP and Congress in Goa in third phase
While the main fight is between the traditional rivals, the BJP and the Congress, other parties and Independent candidates are also in the fray in the North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha seats.
Goa will witness polling in two of its parliamentary constituencies on Tuesday in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election as the ruling BJP and Congress face-off in the electoral battle.
While the main fight is between the traditional rivals, the BJP and the Congress, other parties and Independent candidates are also in the fray in the North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha seats.
By-polls to three assembly seats are also being held on Tuesday in the coastal state. The bypolls to Shiroda, Mandrem and Mapusa seats were necessitated after the Congress lawmakers Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte resigned from the assembly and joined the BJP in October last year. The Mapusa seat fell vacant after BJP lawmaker Francis D’Souza’s death on February 14.
Read: All you need to know about Lok Sabha elections 2019
The elections are also being held after the death of the state’s former chief minister Manohar Parrikar on March 17, which left a void in the ruling party’s leadership. Voting to the Panaji by-elections, necessitated by Parrikar’s passing will be held on May 19.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won the North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha seats with big margins in the last general election held 2014 and will look to retain them.
The Congress has tied up with the former BJP ally, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, on the two Lok Sabha seats and in one of the three assembly constituencies.
Read: All you need to know about Goa
The MGP broke away from the BJP after its leader and deputy chief minister Sudin Dhavalikar was dropped from the cabinet in March this year. The MGP won three assembly seats in the 2017 polls and was one of the key allies in the BJP-led government in the state.
North Goa seat has been the stronghold of Union minister of state (independent charge) for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH ) Shripad Yesso Naik since 1999. This year, the four-time BJP lawmaker is pitted against the chief of the Congress’ Goa unit Girish Chodankar.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) Pradeep Padgaonkar and Jitesh Kamat of the Shiv Sena are also contesting from the North Goa seat.
Also read: In Goa, AAP promises to take up dual citizenship issue
In the South Goa Lok Sabha seat, the sitting member of Parliament and BJP leader Narendra Keshav Sawaikar and Congress’ Francisco Sardinha are fighting the Lok Sabha election 2019. The AAP leader Elvis Gomes and Shiv Sena’s Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik are also in the fray.
The votes will be counted on May 23.
