Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said the results of by-elections to the Panaji and Valpoi seats were as expected.
Reiterating that his government was stable, he said: “The results were as expected. Even the votes polled by the Congress in the Panaji bypoll were as expected, considering the lower turnout of voters. My government is stable.”
In reply to a question about speculations in political circles that some Congress MLAs were on the way to the BJP, he dismissed it saying, “We don’t want any more MLAs from the Congress.”
Mr. Parrikar on Monday tweeted, thanking the people of Panaji for their "emphatic mandate and reposing their trust in me for the sixth time."
He also thanked his colleagues in the Cabinet and alliance partners for their tireless work in poll campaigns.
Shantaram Naik, ex-MP and president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, said the elections were a moral defeat for the BJP although it might have obtained electoral victory. Its candidates indulged in corrupt practice and they used their official position by offering jobs to voters. They also used ''electoral terrorism'' to scare away voters, he alleged.
“The Congress has built an organisation base in the two constituencies and it will strengthen its base in the seats in the coming days,” he said.
Mr. Naik claimed that the Election Commission's ''flying squad'' detained Congress MLA and former Chief Minister Ravi Naik on August 22 on the eve of the by-election when he was ''buying bananas in the market.''
Mr Naik accused the BJP of systematically floating rumours through a section of media that certain number of Congress MLAs are likely to cross over to the BJP.
