2012 Goa Legislative Assembly election


The Goa legislative assembly election was held on 3 March 2012, to select the 40 members of the Vidhan Sabha.
The result was announced on 6 March. The Bharatiya Janata Party-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak alliance defeated the incumbent Indian National Congress government in Goa led by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat with 24 seats in the 40-seat assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 21 seats, while the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party won 3 seats. The MLA with the biggest margin of victory was the incumbent MLA Frances D'Souza of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Former chief minister Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as the new chief minister.

Timetable

The timetable of the electoral events are:
EventDate
Issue of Notification6 February
Candidature filing deadling13 February
Clearance of nominees14 February
Candidature withdrawal deadline16 February
Election3 March
Result6 March
Deadline to finish election9 March

Parties

The Indian National Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, All India Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the national political parties in the fray. Other regional parties include the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak, Goa Vikas Party, United Goans Democratic Party and Go Su-raj Party.

Issues

The issue of the cultural identity of Goa has also come to the fore in the past few years. The population of Goa has rapidly swelled due to increasing migration levels from neighbouring Karnataka and Maharashtra, as well as from further afield such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Corruption

Following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement several allegations of corruption have been made on incumbent government going to elections this year.
Nepotism was also an issue. Former CM and current head of the Goa TMC Wilfred de Souza accused the INC of perpetrating a "Family Raj" in its allotment of tickets for the election to relatives of INC leaders from such families as the Naiks, Alemaos, Ranes and Monserrates. He also cited the denial of an electoral ticket to his son-in-law Tulio D’Souza in Saligao despite the INC also denying him a ticket.
He also criticised the inability of incumbent CM Digambar Kamat to have stopped illegal mining while he was the minister of mining and finance minister in the previous government. He cited a report by a commission led by Justice M. B. Shah to investigate illegal mining in the country that suggested potential revenue of US$423 million was lost through illegal ore exports after he said he had seen a "leaked" version of the report.

Results

Elected MLAs

The following is the list of winning MLAs in the election.
Constituency NumberConstituencyWinnerPartyMargin
10AldonaGlenn TicloBharatiya Janata Party3476
8CalanguteMichael Vincent LoboBharatiya Janata Party1869
3BicholimNaresh SawalIndependents. Resigned MLA post and joined MGP1799
34CuncolimSubhash Rajan NaikBharatiya Janata Party1313
37CurchoremNilesh CabralBharatiya Janata Party8792
26Dabolim*Mauvin GodinhoIndian National Congress. Resigned MLA post and joined Bharatiya Janata Party944
16MaemAnant Shet**Bharatiya Janata Party***5719
30FatordaVijai SardesaiIndependents1939
28Nuvem*Mickky PachecoGoa Vikas Party4196
18PoriemPratapsingh Rane**Indian National Congress***2547
36QuepemChandrakant KavlekarIndian National Congress6373
38SanvordemGanesh GaonkarBharatiya Janata Party2291
22SirodarMahadev Naik**Bharatiya Janata Party***2262
4TivimKiran KandolkarBharatiya Janata Party1112
32BenaulimCaetano SilvaGoa Vikas Party2001
20PriolDeepak Pandurang DhavalikarMaharashtrawadi Gomantak***2100
13St. CruzAtanasio MonserrateIndian National Congress***. Resigned MLA post and revived United Goans Party2336
40CanaconaRamesh TawadkarBharatiya Janata Party***2704
17Sanquelim*Pramod SawantBharatiya Janata Party6918
31MargaoDigambar Kamat**Indian National Congress***4452
33NavelimAvertano FurtadoIndependents2145
5MapusaFrancis D'Souza**Bharatiya Janata Party***10169
23MarcaimSudin Dhavalikar**Maharashtrawadi Gomantak***7230
39SanguemSubhash Phal DesaiBharatiya Janata Party***483
35VelimBenjamin SilvaIndependents4926
29CurotirmAleixo LourencoIndian National Congress4069
15CumbarjuaPandurang Madkaikar**Indian National Congress. Resigned MLA post and joined Bharatiya Janata Party1575
11PanajiSiddharth Kunkolienkar Bharatiya Janata Party***12367
2PernemRajendra ArlekarBharatiya Janata Party***8353
19ValpoiVishwajit Pratapsingh Rane**Indian National Congress2939
25Vasco da GamaJose Luis Carlos AlmeidaBharatiya Janata Party4490
21PondaLavoo MamledarMaharashtrawadi Gomantak3190
9Porvorim*Rohan KhaunteIndependents901
14St. AndreVishnu WaghBharatiya Janata Party1219
1MandremLaxmikant Parsekar**Bharatiya Janata Party***3435
6SiolemDayanand Mandrekar**Bharatiya Janata Party***2171
24MormugaoMilind Naik**Bharatiya Janata Party***913
27Cortalim*José Matanhy de Saldanha Alina SaldanhaBharatiya Janata Party2269
12TaleigaoJennifer MonserrateIndian National Congress438
7SaligaoDilip ParulekarBharatiya Janata Party5808

*New constituency

**Incumbent MLA

***Incumbent party

By-election

Shortly after the election, the Cortalim seat was opened for a by-election following the death of the incumbent, Matanhy Saldanha, as a result of a heart attack. His wife, Alina Saldanha, was originally scheduled to run against Raymond D’Sa of the INC and independent candidate Ramakant Borkar, though the latter two soon withdrew from the race and she was elected unopposed on 25 May. She was given her husband's ministerial portfolio as forest minister. She immediately said that she would not allow mining on forest land.

Analysis

The Daily Pioneer called this election "the first time that the BJP has stamped its success in so many of those constituencies that have a significant population of the minority community."