The BJP is set to form government in Goa and Manipur with the saffron party victorious on 20 seats and 32 seats respectively. Meanwhile in Goa, independent candidates Antonio Vas, Alex Reginald and Chandrakant Shetye vouched their support to the BJP. In Manipur, the saffron party has touched the magic number to return to power with incumbent Chief Minister N. Biren Singh defeating his nearest rival, P. Saratchandra Singh of Congress in the Heingang seat by 18,271 votes.
All 40 seats in Goa had gone to the polls in a single phase on 14 February. Experts had predicted a hung Assembly in Goa, but defeating the odds, the saffron party emerged as a dark horse in a multi-cornered contest with parties including the Congress, BJP, Trinamool, and AAP in the fray. In 2017, BJP had managed to form the government, despite Congress being the single largest party in the state winning 17 seats in the 40 seat Assembly. The saffron party had won 13 seats, yet formed the government with the support of the MGP and Goa Forward Party which had won three seats each, and two independents.
On the condition of anonymity, a national Congress spokesperson said, “The decision of the party in Goa to stitch a pre-poll alliance with AITC was taken by the local leadership and had less role of high command in it; P. Chidambaram was responsible for most of the party strategies in the state.” Meanwhile, Pramod Sawant, the sitting BJP Goa CM travelled to Delhi on Tuesday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In Manipur, the elections which were supposed to be a close contest between the BJP and Congress turned out to be a humiliating defeat for the grand old party, which was pushed to the second position in the state. The elections for the 60-seat Assembly were held in two phases on 28 February and 5 March.
The two estranged allies of the BJP, Naga People’s Front (NPF) and National People’s Party (NPP) fought the elections separately and have both gained more seats than the Congress. In the 2017 elections, the grand old party had won the most seats tallying 28, yet could not form the government. BJP with 21 seats had quickly stitched an alliance with the regional parties, such as NPP, NPF and other smaller parties to form the government.
