Panaji: Despite low voter turnout, Congress today won the Mormugao Lok Sabha by-poll with a considerable margin of 40,000 votes.

Congress candidate Fransisco Sardinha, who is also Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president, defeated BJP s Wilfred Mesquita in the fight which saw the party taking lead in all the Assembly constituencies except four. Congress candidate polled 1,18,583 votes while BJP managed to get 77,681 votes. Two Independents - Hamza Khan and Jawahar Dias got 1,945 and 20,1195 votes, respectively.

The bypoll recorded lowest turnout of 36 per cent in Goa's history.

"This has proved that people have confidence in Congress-led state government," Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat said soon after the result was declared, outside the counting station in Margao town, 33 kms from here. "This is a slap on face of our critics who are always launching fake media campaign of government failure... People have admired our efforts and that is why they voted in such a big number," Kamat said.

Even the constituencies represented by BJP in the state Legislative Assembly could not give lead to the party.

Except for Priol, Marcaim and Sanguem Assembly seats, Congress managed to get lead in all the seats. Right from the counting of first electronic voting machine, Congress maintained its lead which resulted in their victory.

The by-poll was necessitated after the then Congress MP Churchill Alemao resigned from the constituency to join state politics and formed his own outfit - Save Goa Front.

Source : PTI