17th Lok Sabha elections; Cong wins South Goa LS seat, BJP leading in North Goa

Panaji: The Congress wrested the South Goa Lok Sabha seat from the BJP Thursday, while the latter is leading in the North Goa parliamentary constituency.

Congress candidate Francis Sardinha defeated BJP's Narendra Sawaikar in South Goa. The Congress, which had lost this seat in 2014, snatched it back from the saffron party this time.

Sardinha, who had represented this parliamentary constituency earlier, won by a margin of 15,268 votes as he polled 1,81,340 votes, while Sawaikar got 1,66,072 votes.

While AAP candidate Elvis Gomes polled 19,304 votes, Shiv Sena nominee Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik got 1,503 votes in South Goa.

Independent candidates Kalidas Vaigankar and Mayur Kankonkara polled 1,215 and 1,463 votes respectively.

Total 70.15 per cent people had cast their votes in this constituency as against the 75.17 per cent during the 2014 polls.

As for North Goa, the Amit Shah-led party is most likely to retain the seat as its candidate and Union Ayush Minister Shripad Naik established a huge margin over Congress' Girish Chodankar.