when it mattered goa rose spectacularly to the occasion on election day the states residents chucked aside with a vengeance the perception of being socegado and lined up before polling booths in every nook and cranny of goa from youth to nonagenarians fourfifths of a million stood resolutely for change sunday times of india visits a few key constituencies to catch the vibe its a neckandneck fight in the 23 constituencies of north goa between the bharatiya janata party bjpmaharastrawadi gomantak party mgp alliance and the congressncp one with a slight edge to the former political observers say that the huge turn out was due to antiincumbency and also due to strict poll monitoring system in pernem sports minister manohar babu azgaonkar is said to be on a sticky wicket former vasco mla rajendra arlekar who shifted to the sc reserved seat of pernem is likely to become mla again in mandrem though it could be anybodys game bjp president and sitting mla laxmikant parsekar was in a close contest with congress dayanand sopte and trinamool congress sameer salgaocar in bardez out of seven constituencies bjp expected to do well observers say that siolim and mapusa are likely to be retained by the bjp candidates and sitting mlas dayanand mandrekar and francisco d souza bjp also expects to retain saligao which witnessed an intense fight involving independent tulio de souza and ncp suresh parulekar congressncp alliance candidates were on a strong footing in aldona and tivim in porvorim independent candidate rohan khaunte was engaged in a close encounter with bjp candidate govind parvatkar and ncps fermeena khaunte in a late evening development supporters of rohan had a celebration in porvorim claiming victory calangute also witnesssed a close tie between michael lobo who is supported by calangute sarpanch joseph sequeira and sitting mla agnelo fernandes the fight was so intense that fernandes filed a compalint of threat to kill against sequeira analysts say that a photo finish is to be expected in st cruz where the fight is between education minister and congress candidate antanasio babush monserrate mgp candidate dinar tarcar and independent candidate rudolf fernandes meanwhile in ponda the mgp is likely to retain both seats by dhavlikar brother marcaim ramkrishna sudin dhavlikar and priol pandurang deepak dhavilakar panaji except for a stray incident between a candidate an opposition worker polling was largely peaceful in the capital where the mostcommon complaint was the slow pace of voting i have been standing at one spot in this line for 20 minutes the line is not moving ahead it should ideally be fast said a middleaged voter who requested anonymity bjp candidate manohar parrikar said the high turnout is to throw the government out people want change i can sense that the snail pace voting did not escape parrikars attention the speed of voting is slow my agents are giving feedback to the election commission said parrikar congress candidate yatin parekh too felt the high turnout would aid his prospects people