By IANS
Panaji : Goa's ruling Congress appeared set to retain power in the state with its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after winning 19 of the state assembly's 40 seats – just two less than a simple majority.
After being locked in a neck and neck race for power at one time during vote count, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finished with 14 seats. Smaller parties and independents claimed seven seats, earning a strong bargaining position.
Congress leaders indicated that they would seek the support of independents or smaller parties to form a government.
Party sources in New Delhi told IANS that two independent candidates had already indicated propping up a Congress-led government in the state.
Among the parties that made it to the assembly were the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Save Goa Front and the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP).
The verdict showed that Goa's minority Catholic vote may have shifted to the small anti-Congress parties and independents.
But the results were very much a repetition of elections of 1999 and 2002 when too the battle of ballot threw up fractured legislatures.
On Tuesday, both the Congress and BJP saw some of their stalwarts lose but they managed to retain a few of their strongholds.
Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane won from Poriem while former chief minister Manohar Parrikar defeated Congress candidate Dinar Tarcar in the Panaji seat.
Save Goa Front candidate Alexo Louraco defeated Speaker Fransisco Sardinha in the Curtorim seat.
The Front is a brainchild of former chief minister Churchill Alemao, a Congress MP who quit the Lok Sabha and formed the new group just ahead of the state elections.
Former BJP minister Ramrao Desai lost in Curchorem. In Sanvordem, prominent businessman Anil Salgaocar, an independent, defeated the BJP.
Congress' Digambar Kamat won from Margao. Ravi Naik, who too returned to Congress after serving as deputy chief minister in the BJP government, retained his Ponda seat.
Congress' Aleixo Sequeira won in Loutolim, Goa's only Catholic minority constituency in the coastal south.
But former central minister Ramakant Khalap, who joined the Congress after leaving the regional MGP, lost in North Goa to BJP.
The June 2 elections in the former Portuguese colony saw 202 candidates in the fray. These included 49 independents.