Panaji, March 11: With the Assembly elections across the country coming to a close, the Election Commission of India will today announce the much-awaited results for the Goa Assembly elections 2017. The polls were held in a single phase on February 4, 2017.
The importance of the results lies in the fact that the Aam Aadmi Party, who is in power in the national capital, is contesting elections from the state for the very first time. While, the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate, Elvis Gomes has stood for the polls from the constituency of Cuncolim in Southern Goa, other key constituencies from where the party is putting up a tough fight include Mandrem, Dabolim, Margao and the state capital of Panaji among others.
With a total of 39 candidates, the party had fielded the maximum number of contestants from any party in the 2017 elections.Major exit polls predict that the AAP will secure an average 4 seats for the party out of the 40 legislative Assembly seats. However, going by the example of the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party is still hoping to leave a major mark on the state.
The Aam Aadmi Party promised casino free tourism, eradication of drugs and prostitution as key highlights of its manifesto. The party had also released a dedicated youth manifesto that vows to promote sports and education in the state.
The Indian National Congress (INC) had fielded 37 candidates and were closely followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 36 candidates. There are 58 independent candidates in all and, both the Samajwadi Janata Party and the Ambedkarite Party of India have fielded one candidate each.
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Apart from the 11 lakh voters, key leaders like Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Union Minister Shripad Naik and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar were among the early voters who cast their ballots. The polls will also decide the future of five former Chief Ministers of Goa Churchill Alemao, Pratapsinh Rane, Ravi Naik, Digambar Kamat, Luizinho Faleiro and the incumbent Chief Minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party Laxmikanth Parsekar