BJP holds Goa, just short of a majority
The Bharatiya Janata Party topped the poll in Goa again, this time exactly half the assembly.
BJP holds Goa, just short of a majority
What happened
The Bharatiya Janata Party won the most seats in Goa's assembly, but not enough to govern alone.
It won 20 of the 40 seats — exactly half the chamber.
The Indian National Congress followed with 11 seats, while 3 independents also won seats.
The BJP took 50.0% of the seats on 33.3% of the vote.
Nationally, the BJP belongs to the NDA bloc — a group of parties that team up to fight elections together, and share power afterward if they win enough seats between them.
The campaign
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal announced on 21 September 2021 that, if elected in Goa, his party would reserve 80% of jobs for locals, guarantee one government job per family, and pay unemployed youth Rs 3,000 a month until placed.1
On 6 December, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party announced an alliance with Mamata Banerjee's All India Trinamool Congress, which went on to contest 26 seats to MGP's 13.2
On 8 January 2022, the Election Commission announced that Goa would vote on 14 February, with counting on 10 March, alongside four other states.3
In mid-January, Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra said a 'definitive offer' of alliance had been made to Congress in Goa, but Congress leader P Chidambaram rejected the premise, saying anyone opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party should approach Congress directly.4
On 22 January, all 34 Congress candidates took an anti-defection pledge at a Panaji temple, a Bambolim church and a Betim dargah, after only two of the party's 17 MLAs elected in 2017 had stayed with Congress by 2022.5
- 1Kejriwal Announces AAP's Goa Job Guarantees — AAP will ensure 80% job reservation for Goans: Kejriwal, 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly election
- 2MGP Announces Pre-Poll Alliance with Trinamool Congress — Goa elections 2022: MGP, TMC alliance, 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly election
- 3Election Commission Announces Goa Poll Schedule — 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly election
- 4TMC's Offer of a Goa Alliance with Congress Fails — 2022 Goa Elections: Decoding the 'Almost' Alliance Between Congress & TMC in Goa
- 5Congress Candidates Take Anti-Defection Pledge at Religious Sites — Assembly polls 2022: Rocked by defections in Goa, Congress candidates made to take loyalty pledge
What changed
Most of the seats that changed hands moved from the INC toward the BJP.
8 of the 26 seats that changed hands followed that path.
BJP itself grew from 13 seats to 20 seats this time.
A new party, AAP, won a seat in the assembly for the first time.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, fell -2.8 pp from the previous election.
Notable numbers
The tightest finish was at St. Andre, Goa, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of 76 votes.
Poriem, Goa saw the widest margin of the year, at 47.7% of the vote.
Sanquelim, Goa recorded the highest turnout of any seat, at 89.6%.
Vasco-Da-Gama, Goa was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 36,158 names on the rolls.
Siolim, Goa drew the most crowded ballot in the state, with 13 candidates standing.
NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 10,629 votes statewide, 1.1% of the total.
The backdrop
Goa held the Opinion Poll in 1967, a referendum offered as an alternative to merging with Maharashtra, and voters chose by roughly 172,000 to 138,000 to remain a separate territory instead.6
Goa became India's 25th state two decades later, when the Goa, Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act split the union territory and gave it its own Legislative Assembly.7
- 61967 Goa Opinion Poll — 1967 Goa status referendum
- 7Goa Attains Statehood — Goa, Goa, Daman and Diu