Goa Assembly elections 2017: Things to know

The single-phase Goa Legislative Assembly election, 2017 will be held on February 4, 2017 to elect 40 members of the Goa Legislative Assembly, as the term of current Legislative Assembly terminates in March.

Panaji: The single-phase Goa Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on February 4 to elect 40 members of the Goa Legislative Assembly, as the term of current Legislative Assembly terminates in this March.

The term of current Legislative Assembly ends on March 18. The last election had resulted in a 21 seat majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Manohar Parrikar. 

Parrikar was elected Chief Minister. In 2014, he had to resign due to being nominated as Minister of Defence. Laxmikant Parsekar took oath as Chief  Minister as Parrikar's successor.

Here, we take a brief look at some interesting figures as the most richest state in India cast the ballot on February 4.    

Goa was ruled by Portuguese for more than 4 centuries, until 1961, when Indian military began military operations resulting in takeover of Goa.

Now for an unbelievable fact, remains of St. Francis Xavier at Basilica of Bom Jesus in old Goa is 400 years old and are still in a non-decomposing state.

The first printing press of Asia was installed at St. Paul’s college in Goa in 1956.

Not many people know this but Goan people can apply and avail a Portuguese passport along with the Indian one.

Goa is the richest state in India having a GDP per capita of two-and-a-half times that of the whole country.

The first medical school of India was established in Panaji, Goa in 1842.  It was built in the 18th century when the state was still under Portuguese rule. It is demolished in 2004.

Goa is the only state in India with two official languages- Konkani and Marathi and the only state in India with active and imposed Uniform Civil code implemented by the Portuguese.

For a small state, Goa has an astounding number of bars. In total, there are about 7000 bars and almost all of them are licensed to serve alcohol. 

Vasco, Goa has the one and only Naval Aviation Museum of Asia. There are only about six other such museums in the world. The museum displays India’s naval aviation history.