Goa bypolls: Campaign for Panaji, Valpoi seats to end on Monday; voting to be held on 23 August

Panaji: The campaign for Panaji and Valpoi by-election will end on Monday with the voting for both the Assembly seats scheduled on 23 August. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is contesting from Panaji constituency and is pitted against Congress’ Girish Chodankar and Anand Shirodkar of Goa Suraksha Manch. [caption id=“attachment_3871719” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Manohar Parrikar who is contesting from Panaji constituency. PTI[/caption] In Valpoi, BJP candidate Vishwajit Rane is contesting against Congress’ Roy Naik. “As per Election Commission of India (ECI), the canvassing has to stop 48 hours before the polling. This means the campaigning will end on Monday evening at 5 pm,” the ECI official said on Sunday. The ECI has already prohibited opinion poll or exit poll from Monday onwards. Witha fewly few hours left for campaigning, the candidates were making last ditch efforts to woo voters. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar addressed two public meetings on Sunday one at Valpoi and another at Panaji. Congress too held a press conference attacking the BJP. Their candidates visited every household to woo voters. Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) which has fielded its candidate only in Panaji constituency did not organise any public meeting during the entire campaigning while their stress was on door to door contact. Valpoi constituency has around 26,094 voters of whom only 23,129 had voted during 2017 state Assembly election. Vishwajit Rane who had then contested on Congress ticket had won the poll with 12,412 votes against his rival, BJP candidate Satyavijay Naik who polled 9,473 votes. After the election, Rane had left the Congress party and resigned as MLA to join BJP. Panaji constituency which covers the state capital and adjoining areas has a voter base of 22,203 of which 17,339 had cast their vote during the last Assembly election. BJP candidate Siddharth Kuncolienkar had won the election defeating Atanasio Monserratte of United Goans Party, which was supported by Congress. Kuncolienkar had polled 7,924 votes as against Monserratte who had 6,855 votes to his share. The BJP MLA then resigned to make way for Parrikar to contest from this constituency.