PANAJI: More than seven lakh people voted in Goa Saturday to elect a 40-member assembly.
Election Commission officials said the North Goa district with 23 seats reported 77 percent voting and South Goa district (17 seats) clocked about 74 percent balloting. The state has one million voters.
Goa's two main political players claimed they were on the road to victory.
After casting his vote in Margao, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said he was confident the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance would win.
"This is the sixth time I am contesting elections. The signs are good and our alliance will win," a confident Kamat said.
Opposition leader Manohar Parrikar said the huge voter turnout, which he felt could touch as high as 80 percent, was sure to propel his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power.
"I am satisfied. People are eager to vote out thieves," Parrikar said.
The votes will be counted Tuesday.
There were 215 candidates in the fray, including nine women.
Voting was brisk throughout the day in almost all the 1,612 polling stations.
The main contest was between the Congress-NCP combine and the BJP-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party alliance. The Trinamool Congress fielded 20 candidates.
Other smaller parties like the Samajwadi Party, Samajwadi Janata Party, Republican Party of India and Janata Dal-Secular were also in the fray. So were the regional Goa Vikas Party and the United Goan Democratic Party.