Weeks ahead of the assembly elections in the poll bound state Goa, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, debutants Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress along with other political parties have made sure not to leave any stones unturned to form their respective governments in the state. While the ruling BJP in the earlier elections faced competion from Congress, Goa Forward Party and a few, but this time the bar has rised with Mamata Banerjee's TMC has made their entry in the state.
The ruling party is also facing challenges from Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party. Furthermore, the Nationalist Congress Party, Goa Forward Party, and Goa Su-Raj Party are also vying for seats. Many MLAs have switched sides before the polls, reducing the strength of the Assembly to 34 seats.
According to the Election Commission of India, Goa will go to the polls on 14 February, with all 40 seats voting on the same date. The last date for filing the nominations for the Goa 2022 polls was 21 January. The results of the election will be announced on 10 March.
Goa will have 1,722 polling stations in the elections. A total of 11,56,762 voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the upcoming polls.
With so many parties in the fray, a recently conducted poll survey shows that the ruling BJP may get 31% vote share while the Congress may fetch 29% vote share. According to a poll conducted by Zee News, termed - 'Janata Ka Mood' the survey has received over 12 lakh responses.
Goa has a total of 40 seats. North Goa has 23 seats and South Goa has 17 seats. In 2017, BJP in North Goa won 36% vote share, Congress had 27% vote share while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had 6% vote share. When it came to South Goa's vote share, BJP had 28% vote share, Congress had 30% and Others had 42%.
According to the 'Janta Ka Mood' poll, Congress is gaining big in South Goa, the Congress-GFP alliance may get 41% vote share here, while BJP may bag 32%, TMC-MGP is likely to get 12%, Aam Aadmi Party 7%, and others may get 8% vote share. Talking about seats, Congress-GFP may win 10-12 seats, BJP may bag 6-8, TMC-MGP 1-2, AAP 0-2, while others may not be able to open their account.
While talking about seats in North Goa, the BJP would get 6-8, Congress 6-8, AAP 0-1, MGP 0-1, GFP 0-1 and others zero.
On the other hand, when asked the people about who do they see as a chief minister for the next term, 30% chose BJP's Pramod Sawant and 11 percent chose Vishwajit Rane, while 27 percent want Congress veteran Digambar Kamat as new chief minister while 9% have vouched for AAP candidate Amit Palekar. 23 percent of them want to see others on the CM's chair.
Goa residents also spoke about their PM choice. While 53% wanted Narendra Modi, 38% said they want to see Rahul Gandhi as PM. 9% of residents said they wanted others as PM.
The top concerns that Goa people are looking forward at are as follows
Tourism: effect of Covid-19: 58%
Issues related to foreigners: 38%
Road safety: 42%
Unemployment: 65%
Corruption: 44%
