Team Herald
PONDA: Candidates aspiring to contest the Ponda municipal elections have their eyes fixed on the hearing on Wednesday of the petition challenging the reservation of wards in the town.
Though every major political party and some NGOs want to contest and win maximum number of wards at the municipal elections, none has finalised either the candidates or the wards for contesting the election. This is so, because quashing of the reservations by the High Court would lead to recalibration of the candidates and wards for the election. And if the High Court order is delayed then that may even led to alteration in election and nomination dates.
The Ponda Municipal elections are scheduled on April 29 and the filing of nominations would begin from April 6. However, many of the aspiring candidates are yet to choose their wards on account of the petition pending before the High Court.
The petition by former councilor Manoj Keni challenged the reservation on ground that it has not adhered to criteria for reserving the wards. The petition was scheduled to be heard on April 3, but the same was posted to April 4 since the advocate general could not appear before the court.
When the elections were announced and reservations were declared, the MGP accused the BJP, its alliance partner in the government, of rigging the reservation of wards in favour of its candidates. However, this accusation was strongly denied by the BJP.
Some of the wards currently represented by MGP members have been reserved for women, however, the sitting councilors have decided to field their spouses from the reserved wards if the High Court refuses to quash the ward reservations.
MGP sources said that the party would contest all the 15 wards by fielding nine women and six men. “But we are yet to finalise the list of candidates, since the petition challenging ward reservation is yet to be decided by the High Court. Currently, based on present reservation, we have selected candidates for our panel. But if the High Court verdict goes against the present reservation, then we will select the candidates afresh taking into consideration the fresh reservation,” the source added.
Currently, wards 1, 8, 11, 13 are reserved for OBC of which wards 1 and 13 are reserved for OBC women. The total wards reserved for women are 1, 4, 9, 12 and 13.
According to Deputy Collector Vishal Kundaikar, who is the returning officer for the PMC elections, the nomination process is scheduled from April 6 to 13 (Sunday excluded). Scrutiny of nominations will be held on April 16, while candidates can withdraw their nominations till 2 pm on April 17. Thereafter, the returning officer would declare the list of candidates in fray.
Around 15975 people are eligible to vote in the Ponda municipal polls, of whom 8055 are men and 7920 women.
