Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar, who bagged 6,071 votes, in the recently concluded Assembly polls, said “I gave a good fight”.Photo : IANSIndependent candidate Utpal Parrikar, son of late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, has lost to BJP’s Atanasio Monserratte from the Panaji seat in the 2022 Goa Assembly election. Parrikar lost to Monserratte by 716 votes, according to the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Parrikar, who bagged 6,071 votes, in the recently concluded Assembly polls, said “I gave a good fight”. It included both EVM and postal votes. He was defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Monserratte who received 6,787 votes. Parrikar contested the election as an Independent candidate from the state capital Panaji after the BJP refused to give him a ticket in the state elections.Related NewsGoa election results: The significance of BJP’s victory and AAP’s entryDespite winning the seat, Monserratte blamed the party’s cadre and workers for unofficially supporting Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal over him. “I am telling you, I feel the BJP cadre has not accepted me in the party. I look at it that way. That is the reason. If he (Utpal) could get so many votes, it means the cadre shifted their votes to him. I can say only that the BJP leadership here did not manage to do damage control,” Monserrate was quoted as saying by news agency IANS. Besides Parrikar and Monserratte, five more candidates contested from Panaji, including Congress’ Elvis Gomes who got 3,175 votes. Aam Aadmi Party’s Valmiki Datta Naik received 777 votes in its kitty, Revolutionary Goans Party’s Rajesh Vinayak Redkar got 359 votes, and two independent candidates Devendra Sundaram and Yeshwant Madar bagged 40 and 37 votes respectively. As many as 173 votes were given to Nota, which means None of the Above.Related News’A sensitive question’: BJP refuses to confirm if Pramod Sawant will be Goa CM again Meanwhile, the BJP, which fell one seat short of the majority figure in Goa, is set to retain power in the state with the help of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak (MGP) and Independent candidates. “We have won 20 seats. MGP has also given us a letter of support. Three independent MLAs have also supported us. So, now we are 20+3+2 =25. There is a possibility that more candidates will join us. So we are forming the government,” Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said in a press conference in Panaji today. The saffron party has emerged as the single largest party in Goa winning 20 seats in the 40-member state assembly. Congress became second largest party with winning 11 seats and the Independent candidate bagged three seats. MGP won two seats and Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP) got one seat each.