Goa BJP chief wins state RS polls

BJP's Goa state President Vinay Tendulkar on Friday won the election for the state's lone Rajya Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival and counterpart Shantaram Naik by a margin of six votes.

The polling was held at the state assembly earlier on Friday.

With Tendulkar's victory, this is the first time that all the three parliamentary seats in the state are represented by BJP MPs.

Incidentally former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, now Chief Minister, continues to be a Rajya Sabha MP representing Uttar Pradesh.

Tendulkar said that the victory was expected.

"Now we have won across all levels in Goa, in panchayats, zilla panchayats, assembly and now parliamentary elections the BJP has come up trumps," he told reporters.

Tendulkar also congratulated lone Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao for voting for him.

While Tendulkar polled 22 votes in the 40-member house, Naik polled 16.

Leader of Oppositon Chandrakant Kavlekar told reporters that his Congress had failed to attract secular votes from the BJP allies, which led to the loss.

"We had appealed that ruling MLAs with secular credentials should come ahead and vote for our candidate, but there was no response, if one goes by the votes," he said.

--IANS

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