TEAM HERALD
PORVORIM: The newly-formed Socorro ZP constituency will see a straight fight between BJP candidate Dhanashri Gadekar and Independent candidate Vaishali Satardekar. The independent candidate is backed by Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte as well as former chief minister and long time Saligao MLA Wilfred De Souza’s son in law.
The newly formed Socorro ZP constituency comprises the villages of Saligao, Socorro, Guirim and Parra.
Incidentally, this is for the second time in four years that Satardekar and Gadekar will be contesting each other in the polls. During the panchayat elections in 2012, Satardekar had defeated Gadekar in Ward 4 of Socorro. After getting elected, Satardekar even served as sarpanch of Socorro.
Speaking to Herald, Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte accused the government of carefully engineering the delimitation process to create the Socorro ZP constituency for the benefit of a certain influential BJP minister’s spouse, who wanted to contest the ZP elections.
“Since there were objections from people, Gadeker was fielded in the ZP elections at the last minute, despite not being a ‘karyakarta’ of the BJP party. I am confident the electorate will teach the BJP a lesson by voting Satardekar to power. Some ruling MLAs have also extended their support to Satardekar,” said Khaunte.
A visit across Socorro constituency showed that Satardekar enjoyed considerable support in Saligao, Gurim and Parra.
“Khaunte and I have fielded Satardekar as an independent candidate to the Socorro ZP constituency. Former Saligao MLA Dr Wilfred D’souza has also extended his support to our candidate. We are focusing on door-to-door visits and corner meetings,” said architect, Tulio D’Souza who had contested on NCP ticket in the last assembly elections, losing to Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. Sources indicated that Dr De Souza has asked his people to work against the BJP-MGP combine.
On the other hand, Gadekar is banking on the support of the BJP cadre all across the Socorro constituency.
BJP workers are also undertaking door-to-door visits in support of their candidate, using the network that they built up during the last elections.
