BJP retains sitting MPs for Goa's two Lok Sabha seats

The Goa BJP has retained sitting MPs Shripad Naik and Narendra Sawaikar for the April 23 Lok Sabha polls, state BJP general secretary Sadanand Tanavade said Saturday.

Naik, currently AYUSH Minister in the Narendra Modi government, represents North Goa, a seat he has held since 1999, while Sawaikar is South Goa MP.

Sawaikar is a first-time MP, having defeated the Congress' Reginald Lourenco in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The South Goa seat was a Congress bastion, with a sizable minority population, before Sawaikar wrested it in 2014 by polling almost 49 per cent of the votes.