Sanquelim: CM Pramod Sawant Aims to Retain His Bastion. Complete Insight Into Goa’s High-Profile Seat

Goa Assembly Election 2022: The ruling BJP is fighting the Goa elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who will contest for from the Sanquelim seat. Dharmesh Saglani of the Congress who is pitted against Sawant, will have a tough time ousting him since Sanquelim has been the stronghold of the Goa CM.

Sanquelim Assembly Constituency, Goa: Sanquelim is a town and municipal council in North Goa district and one of the 40 Legislative Assembly constituencies of Goa. The Sanquelim beach lies south of other famous North Goan beaches like Candolim, Calangute and Baga. Along with Uttarakhand and Punjab, the coastal state of Goa will also hold elections in one phase on February 14th.

In 2017, Pramod Pandurang Sawant of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and current Chief Minister for Goa won the seat by defeating Dharmesh Saglani from Indian National Congress with a margin of 2131 votes. This time, the Goa assembly election is all set to be a multi-cornered contest with the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), set to give the ruling BJP a tough fight. While AAP has announced that it will contest all the 40 seats, the TMC has allied with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Congress has joined hands with Vijay Sardesai’s Goa Forward Party (GFP).

Will Pramod Sawant be able to retain his seat?

The ruling BJP is fighting the Goa elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who will contest from the Sanquelim seat. Dharmesh Saglani of the Congress who is pitted against Sawant will have a tough time ousting him since Sanquelim has been the stronghold of the Goa CM.

“Once again I’ve filed nomination from Sanquelim constituency. BJP will win the constituency with a big margin & I will be elected from here again. The workers and I are confident. We are coming back to power in Goa in 2022 with 22 plus seats,” said Goa CM Pramod Sawant, after filing the nomination.

The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Manoj Gandhi Amonkar from this seat. Taking a dig at his competitors, Sawant called Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP and Mamata Banerjee-led TMC “tourist parties” and claimed they “are not going to stay back in the state”.

In 2017, it was a hung assembly in Goa with the Congress emerging as single largest party with 17 seats. However, the BJP managed to bag the support of the MGP, GFP and two independents to reach the magic number of 21. As a result, Manohar Parrikar returned as Goa Chief Minister, but after he passed away in 2019, Pramod Sawant took as CM.

BJP to Win Big, Predicts Zee opinion poll 

In Zee News Opinion Poll conducted for North Goa, the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to gain 38 per cent of the vote share in the region as compared to 36 per cent in 2017. The vote of the Aam Aadmi Party is also likely to increase its vote per cent from 6 per cent in 2017 to 10 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, the survey predicted that the vote share of Congress is likely to remain constent at 27 per cent in 2022, like that in 2017. Of the total 40 seats in Goa, 23 falls in North Goa and 17 in South Goa. The other regional parties, consisting Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP) among others are likely to lose their vote share from 31 per cent in 2017 to 25 per cent in 2022.

FULL SCHEDULE: GOA ASSEMBLY ELECTION 2022

The term of the current Goa assembly will expire on March 15, 2022. The elections for the 40-member Goa Assembly will be held in single-phase on February 14. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 10 March 2022. The EC is expected to implement a strict Covid-19 protocol as it announces poll dates amid a surge in coronavirus cases in India.

40 assembly constituencies will vote

• Issue of notification: January 21
• Last date of nomination: January 28
• Scrutiny of nomination: January 29
• Last date of withdrawal of candidature: January 31
• Date of Polling: February 14, 2022
• Date of Counting: March 10, 2022