Sawant keeps Goa party going, mixology ensures BJP hat-trick

Successfully beating anti-incumbency and overcoming resentment and rebellion, BJP reached the halfway mark in the 40-member Goa assembly on its own and is just one short of a majority.

- Vijay de Souza & Murari Shetye

Panaji: This is BJP’s second-highest number of seats in Goa’s political history. The party is all set to form the government for the third consecutive term in the tiniest state.

In 2012, BJP led by Manohar Parrikar had won 21 seats in Goa, its highest ever tally.

This election also saw AAP and Revolutionary Goans (RG) open their account with two and one seat, respectively, while debutant TMC drew a blank. A division of votes between TMC, AAP and RG led to the defeat of Congress in many constituencies, reducing its strength to 11 MLAs.

While BJP’s performance by way of seats jumped from 13 to 20, its vote share went up by only 0.8 percentage points— from 32.5% in 2017 to 33.3%. On the other hand, Congress’s vote share dropped from 28.5% to 23.5%.