St. Cruz, Goa Election 2022 Result LIVE: AAP's Amit Palekar fails to shake Congress stronghold

In what comes as a no surprise, Congress continued to dominate in the St. Cruz constituency as its candidate Rodolfo Louis Fernandes registered a win after counting of votes took place on Thurday. Fernandes secured 8841 votes, leaving behind candidates cutting across party lines, including Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Chief Minister candidate Amit Palekar who bagged 4098 votes. BJP's Antonio Caetano Fernandes bagged over 6377 votes, making hin the first runner-up in the St. Cruz constituency.

As per official EC data, BJP has won 20 seats in Goa, while Congress has one 10 seats and leads on 1, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak and AAP won 2 seas each, Goa Forward Party and Revolutionary Goans Party bagged 1 seat each & Independent candidates clinched 3 seats.

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Goa Election Result 2022: Check out the winning candidate list constituency wise

Exit polls have indicated that the coastal state might be heading for another hung assembly, much like the cliffhanger of 2017. Data predicted both BJP and the Congress would end up with around 15-18 seats each in the 40-member house. The kingmaker is likely to be Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which might win 2-4 seats.

No. of candidates that contested: 5

Ajay Tipu Kholkar - Revolutionary Goans Party
Amit Palekar - AAP
Antonio Caetano Fernandes - BJP
Rodolfo Louis Fernandes - Congress
Victor Benjamin Gonsalves - AITC

Election issues in 2022:

Corruption has been the fundamental issue raised by AAP in their 2022 election campaign. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has claimed that it would fight against corruption and restart mining within six months of coming into power. Mining was halted for ten years during the BJP administration. Also, the party has claimed it will provide land rights and boost tourism in the state, which has witnessed a significant downfall due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The vote share in 2017:

Congress' Antonio Caetano Fernandes won this seat in the 2017 state assembly elections, beating Hemant Dinanath Golatkar of the BJP by a margin of 642 votes (2.89 per cent) of the total votes cast for the seat. INC received 27.92 per cent of the vote in this seat in 2017. However, two years later, Antonio Fernandes joined hands with the BJP, and in the 2019 by-election, he bagged a victory for the saffron party.

Goa Election 2022 voter turnout:

Goa had a single-phase assembly election where 78.94 per cent of eligible voters cast the votes. The estimated voter participation in this seat was 73.97 per cent. 

• Goa Election 2022
• Goa