Goa falls short of female candidates in 2017 assembly polls

Polls in Goa will be held on February 4, 2017 as announced by the Election Commission.

The incumbent government is led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which won 21 of 40 seats in 2012.

In February 2017, state assembly elections in Goa will decide the fate of 40 Vidhan Sabha seats.

Here's a brief overview of the political situation in Goa.

There are three major political parties in the fray: Congress, BJP and AAP.

AAP has announced ex-bureaucrat Elvis Gomes as its CM candidate.

Congress has yet to declare a CM candidate but is expected to announce its list of candidates between January 10-12.

BJP has yet to announce a candidate for CM but may do so post its National Executive meeting on January 8.

AAP's focus is creating jobs, providing education-loans and ensuring ease of business: analysts opine that AAP appears well prepared and can do well.

Congress, the opposition party, has been criticized for performance: experts believe it's in a weak position as it failed to put up a credible opposition.

Locals allies are reportedly disenchanted with BJP as it failed to deliver on its electoral promises.

Recently, BJP government was attacked by a Goan RSS-faction for failing to make education in Konkani mandatory: former leader of this faction is now contesting elections by partnering with Shiv-Sena.

BJP's own trusted ally MGP, withdrew support to government after polls were announced: MGP said it was suffocating under the leadership of current-CM.

The Congress has accused BJP of putting Goa in a debt-trap.

Analysts are of the view that the Catholic minority which has a 23% vote share is unlikely to vote for BJP this time.

AAP connect with Goans is unclear and strong local leadership is amiss from their campaign.

However, Congress's failure to tie-up with like minded parties makes it advantageous for BJP.

A clear majority for any of the parties looks unlikely.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal urged voters in Goa to accept money if it is offered by Congress and BJP workers, but asked them to make sure they vote for AAP.

He said "when it comes to voting, press the button against the name of the AAP candidate."

Kejriwal also rejected pre-poll surveys by media organizations, saying they had no credibility.

According to a senior official, the Election Commission of India will monitor election rallies in Goa through live-streaming and web casting.

"The feed would be monitored in Chief Electoral Office and office of both the district magistrates," said Goa Chief Electoral Officer Kunal.

The live streaming will be spread across 40 constituencies so the officers can watch all of it on their laptops.

As part of its election campaign in the state, AAP promised free water, wi-fi, cheap electricity and more jobs to the people of Goa in the party's election manifesto.

AAP promised 20,000 litres free water for every household, electricity at half the current rate.

Analysts said the promises bore a stark resemblance to AAP's manifesto released in its debut election in Delhi.

Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar questioned AAP's claims that it will double funding to all schemes started by him when he was the Chief Minister of the state.

Parrikar added that AAP "will not win a single seat and hence it is easy for them to keep on making promises."

He was addressing a youth convention in Mormugao constituency when he made the statements.

Elvis Gomes, AAP's chief ministerial candidate in Goa said the party would design and implement systems to eliminate graft within 90 days of coming to power.

He said they would do so through "implementation of various measures like increasing vigilance and introduction of e-governance on a large scale."

He said they seek to reduce public-government physical interaction, so as to remove corruption.

Despite of a higher female literacy than the national average and female voters outnumbering men, Goa still fell short in female candidates for its 2017 assembly elections.

Goa polls witnessed less than 7% female candidates, lower than both Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Out of 251 candidates across 40 constituencies, only 17 are women; 29 constituencies do not have any women candidates.