ABP News-CVoter Opinion Poll: BJP projected to get simple majority in Goa

New Delhi, Jan 11: The ABP-CVOTER survey has predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will get a simple majority in Goa in the upcoming Assembly elections with 32 per cent vote share, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is projected to emerge as the main opposition with 23 per cent vote.

With a 23% vote share, the Congress is projected to to get just 19% vote share.

According to the survey, the BJP is projected to win 21 seats just ahead of the halfway mark of 20 seats. AAP is expected to win 7 seats, higher than the 6 seats projected for the INC.

Mamta Banerjee's TMC is likely to be a non-starter. Its alliance with the MGP is still struck with approx. 8% vote share, with almost 5.5% saying their support for MGP and hardly 2.5% expressing their support for the TMC.

There is also a talk of a grand alliance of all opposition parties that could effectively avoid the split of the traditional Congress votes in many constituencies and cause concern for the ruling BJP. However, nothing concrete has emerged on that front so far.

Prominent leaders like PM Narendra Modi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were in Goa ahead of the elections. BJP chief J P Nadda, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and former Union minister P Chidambaram were other prominent leaders to visit the coastal state.

Two major pre-poll alliances took shape in Goa. Congress has tied up with GFP, a regional outfit that was a part of the Manohar Parrikar government in 2017, while TMC has found a regional partner in the form of MGP, which fought the 2017 polls in alliance with the Shiv Sena but later joined the Parrikar-led government.

AAP entered Goa's political scene during the 2017 Assembly elections and tried to build a base in the coastal state.

In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, BJP won only 13 seats while Congress won in 17 constituencies. However, BJP staked claim to form the government with the support of 3 MGP MLAs, 3 GFP MLAs, two Independents and an NCP MLA under the leadership of Parrikar who resigned as defence minister to return to the coastal state.

After Parrikar's death in March 2019, then Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant became the CM. Sawant's administration has come in for praise from PM Modi for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and vaccination drive.