The Goa legislative assembly election was held on 3 March 2012, to select the 40 members of the Sixth Goa Legislative Assembly, as the term of Sixth Legislative Assembly ended on March 2012. The result was announced on 6 March. The

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

- Maharashtrawadi Gomantak alliance defeated the incumbent

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

government in Goa led by Chief Minister

Digambar Kamat Digambar Kamat (born 8 March 1954) is an Indian politician. He was the Chief Minister of Goa from 2007 to 2012. Manohar Parikar succeeded him after his term as the Chief Minister of Goa. From 2006 to 2019, he was the president of Swimming Fede ...

with 24 seats in the 40-seat assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 21 seats, while the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party won 3 seats. The MLA with the biggest margin of victory was the incumbent MLA Frances D'Souza of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Former chief minister

Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar (born Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar; 13 December 1955 – 17 March 2019) was an Indian politician and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who served as Chief Minister of Goa from 14 March 2017 until his death. Previous ...

was sworn in as the new chief minister on 9 March.

Timetable

The timetable of the electoral events are:

Parties

The

(INC),

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

(NCP), All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and the

(BJP) are the national political parties in the fray. Other regional parties include the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak,

Goa Vikas Party The Goa Vikas Party (GVP) is a regional political party from Goa, India, was led by Francisco Pacheco. The GVP was founded by late Sitaram Bandodkar, and the current president is Francisco Pacheco's partner Viola Pacheco. It was revived by Pach ...

United Goans Democratic Party United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) is one of two formerly dominant political parties in the Indian state of Goa. UGDP has its base amongst the Christian part of the population. It was founded in 1983 by Churchill Alemao. In Goa, the UGDP is h ...

and Go Su-raj Party.

Issues

The issue of the cultural identity of Goa has also come to the fore in the past few years. The population of Goa has rapidly swelled due to increasing migration levels from neighboring

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, as well as from further afield such as

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

and

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

Corruption

Following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement several allegations of corruption have been made on the incumbent government going to elections this year.

Nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

was also an issue. Former CM and current head of the Goa TMC

Wilfred de Souza Wilfred de Souza (23 April 1927 – 4 September 2015) was a surgeon and politician from Goa, India. He served as Goa's first Deputy Chief Minister of Goa and chief minister on three occasions when he was a member of the Indian National ...

accused the INC of perpetrating a "Family Raj" in its allotment of tickets for the election to relatives of INC leaders from such families as the Naiks, Alemaos, Ranes, and Monserrates. He also cited the denial of an electoral ticket to his son-in-law Tulio D’Souza in Saligao Assembly constituency despite the INC also denying him a ticket. He also criticized the inability of incumbent CM

to have stopped

illegal mining Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission, in particular in absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits. Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the ca ...

while he was the minister of mining and finance minister in the previous government. He cited a report by a commission led by Justice M. B. Shah to investigate illegal mining in the country that suggested potential revenue of US$423 million was lost through illegal ore exports after he said he had seen a "leaked" version of the report.

Results

, - ! scope="col" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" , Party ! scope="col" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats contested ! scope="col" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats won ! scope="col" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seat change ! scope="col" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Vote share , - style="background: #90EE90;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" ,

Bhartiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

, 28 , 21 , 7 , 34.68% , - style="background: #90EE90;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" , Maharashtrawadi Gomantak , 7 , 3 , 1 , 6.72% , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" ,

, 34 , 9 , 7 , 30.78% , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" ,

, 6 , 0 , 3 , 4.08% , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" ,

, 7 , 0 , 1 , 1.17% , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" ,

, 9 , 2 , 2 , 3.5% , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" , Save Goa Front , 0 , 0 , 2 , 0% , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" , Independents , 72 , 5 , 3 , 16.67% , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9; font-weight:bold" ! scope="row" style="text-align:left;" , Total , , 40 , ,

The following is the list of winning MLAs in the election.

By-election

Shortly after the election, the Cortalim seat was opened for a by-election following the death of the incumbent, Matanhy Saldanha, as a result of a heart attack. His wife, Alina Saldanha, was originally scheduled to run against Raymond D’Sa of the INC and independent candidate Ramakant Borkar, though the latter two soon withdrew from the race and she was elected unopposed on 25 May. She was given her husband's ministerial portfolio as forest minister. She immediately said that she would not allow mining on forest land.

Analysis

The ''

Daily Pioneer ''The Pioneer'' is an English-language daily newspaper in India. It is published from multiple locations in India, including Delhi. It is the second oldest English-language newspaper in India still in circulation after ''The Times of India''. I ...

'' called this election "the first time that the BJP has stamped its success in so many of those constituencies that have a significant population of the minority community."

References

External links

Goa Election Commission
{{Goan elections 2012 State Assembly elections in India State Assembly elections in Goa 2010s in Goa March 2012 events in India