Panaji (Goa) [India], March 28 (ANI): While the only woman minister Jennifer Monserrate in the Goa Cabinet during the first term of the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant missed out from the swearing in, her husband Atanasio Monserrate was among the new faces in the council of ministers, which took oath on Monday.

Panaji (Goa) [India], March 10 (ANI): Exuding confidence, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to form a government in the state.

Panaji (Goa) [India], March 10 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party is inching closer to attaining halfway mark in Goa with the party maintaining leads on 19 Assembly seats, according to the Election Commission of India data on the poll trends.

Panaji (Goa) [India], March 10 (ANI): Utpal Parrikar, son of late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, thanked Goans who voted for him and expressed slight disappointment after knowing that he was trailing in terms of the vote share from his seat.

Panaji (Goa) [India], March 10 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa is inching closer to the half-way mark as early trends of the counting of votes showed the party leading on 18 Assembly seats.

New Delhi Jan 20 PTI The BJP released its first list of 34 candidates for the Goa Assembly polls on Thursday with Utpal Parrikars name missing from it as the party has preferred Atanasio Babush Monserrate over him from PanajiUtpal Parrikar son of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar and a senior BJP leader had expressed his desire to contest from Panaji his fathers seat where the party has decided to field Monserrate who is the sitting MLA and a former Congress leaderAddressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here the partys poll in-charge for Goa Devendra Fadnavis said for the BJP the Parrikar family is its own familyBut from the seat that Utpal wanted to contest we already have a sitting MLA and it would not be fair to drop him However we have given him the option of contesting from two other seats and the talks are progressing in that direction Fadnavis saidThe BJPs list of 34 candidates which was released by party general secretary Arun Singh along with Fadnavis includes the names of two couplesWhile Monserrate is the saffron partys nominee from Panaji his wife has been fielded from Taleigao Similarly another former Congress leader Vishwajit Rane will contest on a BJP ticket from Valpoi and his wife Divya Rane from PoriemBoth the couples are from traditionally Congress familiesResponding to a question on why the BJP which usually gives one poll ticket to a family has made an exception in Goa Fadnavis termed it an occupational hazardSometimes in politics we see what we call an occupational hazard Both Babush Monserrate and his wife were elected and then joined the BJP Jennifer Monserrate has a separate identity and she is a minister in the current BJP government Similarly Vishwajit Rane has been given a ticket from his seat and his wife from his father Pratapsingh Ranes seat he saidChief Minister Pramod Sawant will again be the BJPs candidate from SanquelimFadnavis said the BJP has ushered in a new era of development in Goa in the last 10 years while also ensuring stabilityPolling for the 40-member Goa Assembly will be held on February 14 and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10 With the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party AAP and the Trinamool Congress TMC a multi-cornered electoral contest is expected in the coastal state PTI JTR RC

Panaji (Goa) [India], January 20 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released its first list of candidates for Goa in which the party announced the names of 34 out of 40 candidates for the upcoming assembly election.