Rupesh Samant

Panaji, May 22: The counting of votes of both the Lok Sabha constituencies and four assembly segments in Goa will be held on May 23 across two stations in north and south district respectively.

The counting of votes for north district which includes a Lok Sabha constituency and three assembly segments – Panaji, Mapusa and Mandrem will be held in Panaji, while for south Goa which includes one Lok Sabha and Shiroda assembly constituency will be held in Margao.

District election officer R Menaka said that counting will start at 8 am, while it will continue till mid-night because along with electronic voting machines, the manual counting of VVPATs from five booths of each assembly constituency will be taken up to match the figures.

She said that the results will start coming by afternoon with counting for assembly by-elections likely to get over faster than that of Lok Sabha. Total 72.04 per cent people had voted for Lok Sabha elections that were held on April 23, exactly a month ago.

BJP has fielded union AYUSH minister Shripad Naik on north Goa Lok Sabha seat who is pitted against Congress candidate Girish Chodankar and AAP’s Pradeep Padgaonkar.

Republican party of India’s Amit Korgaonkar and two independents – Aishwarya Salgaonkar and Bhagwan Kamat is also in the fray.

In south Goa constituency, BJP has fielded its sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar who is contesting against former CM and Congress candidate Francis Sardinha and AAP’s Elvis Gomes.

Shiv Sena has fielded its state vice president Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik while independents – Kalidas Vaigankar and Mayur Kankonkar – are also contesting from this seat.

The state also witnessed by-elections in five assembly segments including Panaji where mid-term poll has to be held due to the demise of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar.

BJP has fielded its former MLA Siddharth Kunkolienkar in Panaji constituency against former minister Atanasio Monserratte who is contesting on Congress ticket. Former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar is contesting from this constituency on Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) ticket, while two independents - Dilip Ghadi and Vijay More are also in the fray.

In Mapusa assembly constituency where election was necessitated due to demise of sitting MLA Francis D’Souza, his son Joshua is contesting on BJP ticket against Sudhir Kandolkar of Congress.

AAP has fielded Shekhar Naik as its candidate while Nandan Sawant is contesting on GSM ticket. Two other candidates Ashish Shirodkar and Sudesh Asotikar are also in the fray as independents.

In Mandrem assembly constituency, BJP candidate Dayanand Sopte is contesting against Babi Bagkar of Congress, Swaroop Naik of GSM and an independent candidate Jeet Arolkar.

BJP has fielded Subhash Shirodkar in Shiroda assembly constituency who is contesting against Mahadev Naik of Congress and Deepak Dhavalikar of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party.

AAP has fielded Yogesh Khandeparkar as its candidate while Santosh Satarkar is contesting on GSM ticket.