New Delhi [India], Mar. 11 : Winning the state assembly election for the fifth time, Goa Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza has defeated Secretary of Goa Cricket Association Vinod Phadke of the MGP in Mapusa constituency.
Bharatiya Janata Party's D'Souza, who holds the health and town and country planning portfolios, received 10,957 votes.
The 62-year-old sitting MLA from Mapusa was among the first Catholic leaders to join the BJP two decades ago.
He was the front runner for the post of chief minister when former CM Manohar Parrikar was elevated as Defence Minister, but he had lost the stake to Laxmikant Parsekar.
The results for 30 out of 40 seats in Goa Assembly elections show that the Congress Party is leading on twelve seats, BJP on eleven and others on seven.
The counting of votes for the 40 seats in Goa Assembly elections started at 8 a.m. this morning. The Election Commission (EC) has set up two counting centres in North and South Goa to declare the winners in 40 seats.
The Congress, the BJP and the AAP ran the most high-octane campaigns, along with regional parties like Goa Forward and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which contested in alliance with Shiv Sena and the Goa Suraksha Manch, mentored by former state RSS chief Subhash Velingkar.
For the 40 assembly seats, the BJP had fielded candidates in 36, the AAP in 39, the Congress in 37, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) in 25 and the NCP also in 37 seats.
In the four-cornered contest, Goa witnessed 83 percent voting, which equalled the polling percentage of 2012.
As per Election Commission officials, a majority of the 15,590 postal ballots had been accounted for. The February 4 election also saw Goa earn the credential of being the first state in the country to fully implement the electronically transmitted postal ballot system and the VVPAT technology that allowed voters to verify whether or not they have voted correctly.
Source: ANI
