The first elections to the Goa, Daman & Diu Legislative Assembly were held in December 1963, to elect members of the 30 constituencies, in the

Union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

Goa, Daman and Diu Goa, Daman and Diu (, ) was a union territory of the Republic of India established in 1961 following the Annexation of Goa, liberation of Portuguese India, with Maj Gen K P Candeth as its first governor. The Goa portion of the territory was gran ...

, India. The

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party ( MGP) is a political party in India. It was Goa's first ruling party after the end of Portuguese rule in Goa in 1961. The party has its base amongst non-Brahmin Hindu migrants from Maharashtra and their desce ...

won the most seats (fourteen), and its leader, Dayanand Bandodkar was appointed as the Chief Minister of Goa, Daman and Diu. The United Goans Party won 12 seats, three seats were won by Independents, whereas the

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

-led

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

only won one seat.

Background

After the

Annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli The Annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli was the process in which the territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli passed from Portuguese rule to independent rule, with Indian allegiance, in 1954. Dadra and Nagar Haveli were small undefended Port ...

in 1954, followed by the

Annexation of Goa The Annexation of Goa was the process in which the India, Republic of India annexed the Portuguese State of India, the then Portuguese Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, starting with the armed action carried out by the Indian Armed ...

in 1961, the new union territory of

was established. Later, in 1963, after the passing of the ''Government of Union Territories Act, 1963'', Goa, Daman and Diu was assigned a Legislative Assembly of thirty seats. To facilitate the upcoming election, A. F. Couto was made the Chief Electoral Officer of the union territory on 19 August 1963. The

Delimitation Commission of India The Delimitation Commission of India is a commission established by the Government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act, tasked with redrawing the boundaries of legislative assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies bas ...

split up the Union territory into 30 constituencies; 28 in Goa and one each for Daman and Diu. On 3 October, it was announced that the

, Frente Popular and the

(MGP) were allowed to have reserved electoral symbols, followed on 24 October, by the United Goans Party (UGP).

Election Schedule

Results

Elected Members

Aftermath

On 20 December 1963, Dayanand Bandodkar was sworn in as Chief Minister. His cabinet included only two other ministers, Vittal Karmali and

Tony Fernandes Malay titles#Tan Sri, Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes (born 30 April 1964) is a Malaysian Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur. He is the founder of Tune Air Sendirian Berhad, Sdn. Bhd., which took over the first Malaysian Low-cost carrier, budge ...

Jack de Sequeira João Hugo Eduardo de Sequeira (20 April 1915 – 19 February 1989), popularly known as Dr. Jack de Sequeira, also known as ''Jak Siker'' according to local naming conventions, was an Indian politician, businessman and former medical practitio ...

, of the UGP, was the first Leader of the Opposition and

Pandurang Purushottam Shirodkar Pandurang Purushottam Shirodkar (12 December 1916 – 5 September 2000) was an Indian campaigner, author and the first Speaker (politics), speaker of the Goa, Daman and Diu Legislative Assembly. He was born in Goa in Portuguese India. He studie ...

was the first Speaker of the Assembly. Since the party in government, the MGP, was in favour of merging the territory with Maharashtra, they precipitated the issue. This led to the 1967 Goa status referendum, where the voters rejected the merger and instead opted to remain a Union Territory.

Bypolls

References

{{Goa elections

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...