Post scrutiny of nominations, 12 in fray for 2 Goa LS seats

Nominations of 12 candidates were Friday found valid after scrutiny for Goa's two Lok Sabha seats, election officials said.

Nominations of 18 candidates were found valid after scrutiny for the three Assembly bypolls in the state.

The Lok Sabha elections and three bypolls will be held in Goa on April 23 while counting of votes will be taken up on May 23.

Between March 28 and April 4, a total of 16 candidates had filed nominations for the North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha seats.

Post scrutiny on Friday, the two seats will have six candidates each, comprising those from the ruling BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena and Independents.

For the three bypolls, there are seven candidates in Mapusa, six in Shiroda and five in Mandrem Assembly seats.

The nomination papers of the dummy candidates failed to clear the scrutiny, officials said.

The Mapusa bypoll was necessitated due to demise of then BJP MLA Francis D'Souza, while in Shiroda and Mandrem, Congress MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte quit the Goa Legislative Assembly and joined the BJP.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 8.