By-election results: Manohar Parrikar wins Panaji, Congress leads in Bawana on Business Standard. C
Goa Chief Minister and BJP leader Manohar Parrikar has won a sixth term as MLA, winning the by-election to Panaji, defeating Congress’s Girish Chodankar by a margin of 4,803 votes. Chodankar secured 5,059 votes while Parrikar won with 9862 votes. In Valpoi, former Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane is leading by a huge margin and is set to win the seat for the BJP.
In Delhi's Bawana by-election, Surender Kumar of the Congress party is maintaining his lead by 1,1097 votes after 5th round of counting. Ved Parkash of Bharatiya Janata Party is in second position.
The focus of Monday’s results is on the high-stakes Bawana by-election in Delhi, and crucial Panaji bypolls in Goa.
Goa:
Counting of votes for Goa's two assembly constituencies, Panaji and Valpoi, began at 8 a.m. on Monday.
In the Panaji by-election, four-time Chief Minister and five-time Panaji MLA Manohar Parrikar takes on Girish Chodankar of the Congress and Anand Shirodkar of the Goa Suraksha Manch.
In the Valpoi by-poll, the contest is between Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and Roy Naik of the Congress.
Poll officials said that counting was likely to be completed by 10 a.m. followed by the announcement of the winners.
Nearly 75 per cent voting was recorded during the August 23 by-polls in Goa, with 22,196 and 28,868 votes cast in Panaji and in Valpoi assembly constituencies respectively.
The by-poll in Panaji was necessitated after Parrikar's return to state politics in March this year, as Chief Minister.
Sitting BJP MLA Sidarth Kuncolienkar resigned from thePanaji seat, enabling Parrikar to contest for the state capital constituency.
In Valpoi, the by-polls were held following the resignation of Rane as a Congress MLA. He subsequently joined the BJP and the cabinet as Health Minister.
Bawana by-election
Counting of votes polled during the high-stakes Bawana bye-election began this morning, with the result likely to influence political equation in the city.
The by-poll was held on August 23 which saw a meagre turnout of 45 per cent.
The counting began at 8 AM, a senior official said here.
It will decide the fate of candidates of the three major political parties -- the ruling AAP, the BJP and the Congress, all of whom have exuded confidence about winning the Assembly seat reserved for the SC category.
EVMs equipped with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) were used for the first time in this constituency.
Eight candidates are in the fray but essentially the AAP, the BJP and the Congress are locked in a triangular contest.
On August 23, polling for the bye-election for Bawana constituency, one of the largest in Delhi in terms of number of electors, saw 45 per cent voter turnout, much lower than during the 2015 Assembly elections which had recorded 61.83 polling.
In the 70-member Delhi Assembly, the AAP has 65 MLAs, BJP 4, while Congress is hoping to open its account in the House by winning this seat.
Incidentally, in the Rajouri Garden bypoll, held earlier this year, the BJP wrested the seat from the AAP while a resurgent Congress had finished second.
For Bawana bypoll, the BJP has fielded Ved Prakash who had won from the constituency in the 2015 elections as an AAP candidate.
He had resigned from Assembly membership and joined the BJP in March this year, necessitating the bypoll.
The AAP's candidate is Ram Chandra, while the Congress has placed its bet on former three-time MLA from Bawana, Surendra Kumar.
There are 2.94 lakh voters in Bawana including 1,64,114 males, 1,30,143 females and 25 third gender voters. Voting was held peacefully in 379 polling stations across the Assembly constituency.
According to officials an EVM and 17 VVPAT devices had malfunctioned during polling, and were replaced without any hindrance to voting.
The officials conjectured that multiple elections taking place in the city in quick succession could be a factor for the low turnout in Bawana, adding that voter turnout is "generally low" in bypolls.