Lok Sabha Elections: Polling begins in Goa, progressing smoothly

However, there were reports of delay in beginning of voting in some of the constituencies. The voting will end at 1800 hrs.

There are over 11.36 lakh voters who will exercise their franchise to elect Members of Parliament in two constituencies- South Goa and North Goa.

The constituencies where by-elections are being held are Mandrem, Mapusa and Shiroda. Mandrem has 32,153 registered voters, Mapusa 20,212 and Shiroda 28,962 voters.

There are six candidates each in the two Lok Sabha constituencies. The prominent candidates in South Goa are former State Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha, Aam Adami Party (AAP) Goa Convenor Elvis Gomes, BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar and Shiv Sena Vice President Rakhi Prabhudessai Naik.

In North Goa, prominent candidates are Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar, Union Minister for AYUSH Shripad Naik, AAP

The main contenders in the by-elections are former Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza's son Joshua D'Souza (Bharatiya Janata Party) and Sudhir Kandolkar (Congress) in Mapusa constituency, former MLA Dayanand Sopte (BJP) and Babi Bagkar (Congress) in Mandrem constituency while former MLAs Subhash Shirodkar (BJP), Mahadev Naik (Congress) and Deepak Dhavalikar (Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party) in Shiroda constituency.

There are 1652 polling stations in the state. As many as 12,000 government employees have been engaged in the election process and close to 4,000 police personnel deployed for security.