With no clear trend and 74.6% turnout for Lok Sabha polls, Congress and BJP claim victory

PANAJI: Goa registered a voter turnout of 74.6% for the two Lok Sabha seats and around 83% for the three crucial assembly seats in the

bypolls

as voters kept parties guessing on the final outcome, which will be declared a month later on May 23.

A higher-than-expected turnout has made both Congress and BJP claim that people have voted in their favour. “It is a positive

vote

for BJP and we will win all five seats,” chief minister Pramod Sawant told TOI.

But some Congressmen are worried that a lower turnout in Salcete of 70% may make it a close finish. “Looks like the anger has not come out fully for a vote against Modi,” they said.

In 2014, buoyed by a Modi wave, 76.8% of people had turned out to vote. But it is the three bypolls that will determine the government’s stability that has evoked considerable interest among people.

People from all the three constituencies—Mandrem, Mapusa and Shiroda—came out to vote in huge numbers with Mandrem and Shiroda crossing the 80% mark.

There is a fierce battle for the three assembly seats as BJP after having poached two of the sitting MLAs from Congress—Mandrem and Shiroda—is hoping they would give them the much-wanted breathing space by winning under the saffron party symbol. Mapusa, where BJP has fielded Joshua—son of former deputy chief minister Francis D’Souza—is battling one of its own men, Sudhir Kandolkar, who moved to Congress after being denied a ticket by his party.

The cracks in its cadre has rattled BJP and there is talk that the saffron party may poach one or two more Congress MLAs to get higher numbers in the assembly.

Chief electoral officer Kunal attributed the slight drop in polling to the “holiday season, long weekend and election fatigue”—the last polls were held only in 2017.

“Wherever we went, people were enthusiastic about participation, especially the youth and senior sections of society,” he said.

Normally, the polling percentage for parliamentary polls is lower than that of assembly

elections

.

Polling passed off peacefully, but was marred in some places by malfunctioning of electronic voting machines. The faulty ones were replaced by the election commission authorities.