Goa Election 2022 Exit Polls: CM Pramod Sawant confident BJP will form govt again

Even as most exit polls indicate that BJP and Congress will end up with an average of 14-16 seats each in the 40-member house, sitting CM Pramod Sawant on Monday expressed confidence that his government will return to power in the coastal state.

Also read: Goa Election 2022 Exit Polls LIVE: Hung assembly likely; TMC to be kingmaker

"BJP will get 18-22 seats in Goa & will form the govt. Our priority is to complete infrastructure projects of our double engine govt. As per exit polls also, BJP will return to power in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur and will have good performance in Punjab," Goa CM Pramod Sawant, who has fielded from the Sanquelim seat, said.

Sawant was elected twice in the region with no former political experience under his belt. He is a doctor by profession and is associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

According to the poll of polls, the kingmaker in Goa will be Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which might win 2 to 4 seats.

Also read: Goa Election 2022: What G-O-A means for PM Modi, he explains

To recall, after a rigorous campaign in Goa, the state went into polling on February 14 to decide the fate of 301 candidates for 40 Assembly seats. 

The BJP, which has not entered into any pre-poll alliance, is trying to retain power in the coastal state.The Congress wants to avert a repeat of the 2017 fiasco in Goa when the party failed to take power despite emerging as the single largest in the election.

Earlier today, AICC's Goa desk head Dinesh Gundu Rao said that if the Congress fails to reach the magic number (21), the party is open to getting support from AAP, TMC and MGP. Rao said that after the final result is out, Congress will waste no time electing its Leader. "If Congress gets a majority, we will stake claim to form a government the same day," he added. 

Also read: Goa Election 2022: 78.94 per cent voter turn out recorded

The single-phase Assembly elections in Goa saw a high voter turnout of 78.94 per cent in polling for the 40 assembly seats. According to official data of the Chief Electoral Officer, the highest voter turnout was recorded in the Sanquelim constituency with 89.61 per cent, while the lowest was in Benaulim with 70.2 per cent. Goa, the smallest state in the country, only has two districts --- North Goa and South Goa. North Goa registered a maximum turnout of 79 per cent, while South Goa stood at 78 per cent.

The Congress won 17 of 40 seats in Goa in the 2017 election, but the BJP, after winning 13 seats, took power with help from smaller parties and independents. Two years later, 15 Congress MLAs switched to the BJP, led by the Congress's Leader of Opposition, Babu Kavlekar, who the BJP made Deputy Chief Minister.

• Goa Election 2022
• Goa