Panaji, Nov 3 : Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha on Saturday won the Mormugao Lok Sabha seat defeating his close rival Wilfred Mesquita of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of over 40,000 votes.

Besides candidates from two major parties - Congress and BJP, two independent candidates Jawahar Dias and Hamja Khan are also in the fray.

The seat fell vacant after the then Congress Member of Parliament Churchill Alemao resigned on May 8 to join state politics.

Counting of votes for the bypoll began at 8:00 a.m.

The polling was held on October 31. (ANI)