The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the party with the majority seats in Goa assembly elections. The party won a total of 20 seats in the 40-member Assembly, falling just one short of the number needed for a majority. However, the victory margins remained wafer-thin as always in the coastal state.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant managed to win by just 666 votes against Dharmesh Saglani of Congress. Utpal Parrikar, son of former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who contested as an Independent, lost Panaji to BJP’s Atanasio Monserratte by just 716 votes.

Monserratte blamed the BJP cadre for his narrow margin of victory.

The largest margin of victory was seen in the Poriem constituency where Deviya Vishwajit Rane of the BJP defeated Vishwajit Rane of the Aam Admi Party by 13,943 votes. Other large winning margins include Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party’s Ramkrishna Alias Sudin Dhavalikar’s win in Marcaim over BJP’s Sudesh Bhingi by 9,963 votes.

BJP’s Vishwajit Pratapsingh Rane snatched Valpoi from Revolutionary Goans Party’s Tukaram Bharat Parab by a margin of 8,085 votes.

Michael Vincent Lobo, the Congress leader who jumped from BJP, got 4,979 more votes than Joseph Robert Sequeira of BJP in Calangute constituency. Vijai Sardesai, the leader of the Goa Forward Party also secured his win by only a margin of 1,527 votes in Fatorda over BJP’s Damu G Naik.

Digambar Kamat, Congress CM contender and now the leader of the opposition, secured his seventh term in Margao by winning against Ajgaonkar Manohar (Babu) of BJP with a strong margin of 7,794 votes.

Other small winning margins include Viresh Mukesh Borkar of the new political outfit Revolutionary Goans Party who won against BJP incumbent Francisco Silveira by a difference of 76 votes. Ravi Naik of the BJP barely eked out a win against Maharashtrawadi Gomantak’s Ketan Prabhu Bhatikar by just 77 votes. Cruz Silva of AAP secured a win in Velim defeating Congress's Savio D’Silva by a margin of just 169 votes.

BJP candidate Govind Gaude secured his win against Deepak Dhavalikar, President of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, by a margin of 213 votes. Independent candidate Dr Chandrakant Shetye defeated Rajesh Patnekar, state assembly speaker, in Bicholim by 318 votes. After his win, Shetya gave his support to the BJP government to form the government.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)