Voting begins for Goa's two LS seats

Panaji, April 12 (IANS) Balloting for the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Goa began Saturday, officials said.

All the four key contestants cast their ballot within half an hour of the booths' opening for business at 7 a.m.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar cast ballot at the Massan de Amorim polling booth in the capital.

Voting will wind up at 6 p.m., with the authorities extending the time by an hour to facilitate more polling.

As many as 1,057,499 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in North Goa and South Goa constituencies. The electorate is evenly balanced between men and women and 12.88 percent are in the 18-25 year age group.

A total of 1,622 polling booths have been put up.

The main contenders for the North Goa seat are sitting MP and BJP candidate Shripad Yesso Naik, Congress candidate Ravi Naik and Dattaram Desai from the Aam Aadmi Party.

Aleixo Reginaldo from the Congress and Narendra Savoikar from the Bharatiya Janata Party will fight it out for the South Goa seat.

The Congress party has won this seat in 10 out of 14 Lok Sabha elections held.