Sanquelim, Goa Election 2022 Result: CM Pramod Sawant retains his bastion

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant emerged victorious in the Sanquelim assembly constituency as he defeated Congress leader Dharmesh Saglani by a margin of 600 votes, according to the Election Commission (EC).

Earlier in the day, the BJP leader was trailing while his Congress rival was leading the election race in the constituency, and the margin was over 400. However, Sawant managed to take the lead later on.

As per data available on the official EC website currently, Pramod Sawant bagged 11561 votes, while Saglani bagged 11175 votes.

Pramod Sawant has won the constituency since the 2012 assembly elections and this is his hat trick victory.

"People of Goa have given us a majority. The campaign by state and central leaders helped us. We will take ahead the vison of Prime minister Narendra Modi forward. Those who want to join us, will come forward and we will take them along, " said Dr Pramod Sawant adding all three wining Independents have declared their support to the BJP.

In 2017, CM Pramod Sawant won the seat by defeating Congress' Dharmesh Saglani with a margin of 2131 votes, accounting for 8.99 per cent of the total votes cast for the seat. The BJP had received 42.44 per cent of the vote in this seat.

No. of candidates who contested: 12

Daudkhan Pathan - Independent
Dharmesh Saglani - Congress
Dr Pramod Sawant - BJP
Lavu Gurunath Petkar - Independent
Mahadev Yeshwant Khandekar - Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP)
Mahesh Parab - Independent
Manojkumar Ghadi - AAP
Navanath Ramkrishna Mulvi - Jai Maha Bharath Party
Sagar Dhargalkar - Shiv Sena
Sujay Gauns - Revolutionary Goans Party
Sunil Datta Satodkar - Independent
Sunil Suresh Fulari - Independent

Key issues

The issue of corruption has been a sore point in Goa's political landscape, especially after former state Governor and BJP leader Satya Pal Malik alleged rampant corruption in everything the Goa government did. Other issues that plague the state include a surge in casinos run by non-Goans, mining, protection of local culture, and demand for a special status for the state.

Goa Election 2022 voter turnout

The single-phase assembly elections in Goa saw a high voter turnout of 78.94 per cent for the 40 assembly seats. According to the Chief Electoral Officer's official data, the highest voter turnout was recorded in the Sanquelim constituency at 89.61 per cent, while the lowest was in Benaulim at 70.2 per cent.