Goa goes to vote for a new Indian government

The drums have fallen silent and the fingers are being kept crossed as Goa joins 13 states which go to the polls today to elect 141 candidates to the Lok Sabha from a total of 2,041 aspirants.

So along with the state of Goa there are states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Tripura which go to the polls today. However most of these states barring Tripura and Goa are going to the polls in part with some seats either polled for earlier or to be polled for in the third phase of Lok sabha elections.

Goans are faced with a difficult choice of candidates as compared to earlier Lok sabha elections owing to the fact that social activism in Goa has sprung up like never before. Goans have come to the streets to voice their concerns about the degradation of Goa through various quarters of the government and have shown their disgust at government apathy to the rampant and haphazard development of Goa in complete disregard to the life of its citizens.

So while Goans may be unhappy with the choice of candidates on offer, Goa has been known to throw up a good number of voters turning up for the elections. So although thrust with unsatisfactory options, Goans are known to prefer to vote rather than sit at home and brood about the elected nominee.

There is however a common lament that good people are not coming up to contest elections in Goa which is why the sub-ordinate candidates and the same old faces are elected time and again to the parliament.