Its Sardinha in South Goa, Shripad in the North

While the whole country was agog with the most sensational news of a surprise UPA ( United Progressive alliance) comeback in the country, Goa threw up no surprises with the Goan electorate settling for the tried and tested political warhorses of Goa.

So while the Bharatiya Janata party retained the seat in the North Goa ( Panaji) constituency, the Congress maintained its stronghold on the South Goa ( Mormugao constituency). Both the MPs will therefore be serving their third term in the parliament.

While the two candidates may have won in their respective constituencies, their margins of victory this time were dented by their political opponents to a significant amount.. The North Goa candidate Mr Shripad Naik defeated the Nationalist Congress party ( NCP ) candidate  Mr Jitendra Deshprabhu by a mere 6,353 votes. In the last election held in 2004 Mr Naik had won from this constituency by over 56, 213 votes which suggested how massive the drop in victory had been this time around. The NCP candidate in the meanwhile was ruing the fact that an extra bit of hard work could have seen him pulling it off in the race. While Mr Shripad Naik polled 1,37,716 votes, the NCP candidate could muster close on his heels with a tally of 1, 31,363 votes

In South Goa, the Congress nominee Mr Francisco Sardinha was a winner by a margin of only 12,516 votes over his nearest BJP rival Mr Narendra Sawaikar. Mr Sardinha had won this seat last time in the November 2007 bye-election by a margin of over 40,893 votes. Blaming some party men for anti-party activities which resulted in his lower victory margin, Mr Sardinha said that the victory had given a befitting reply to such elements within the party. Mr Francisco Sardinha polled a total of 1,27,494 votes whereas the BJP candidate could manage around 1,14,978 votes. The UGDP candidate Mr Mathany Saldanha also bit into the congress vote-bank , emerging  third in the race with a tally of 16,727 votes.