PANJIM: While the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) election results declared a clear winner in ‘Babush’ Monserrate, Panjimites and analysts have questioned if the victory masks the “nightmare” realities of life in the capital city.
Amid allegations of strategic ward delimitation, critics argue the election bypassed critical urban crises—ranging from the unchecked “menace” of offshore casinos to the environmental health of the River Mandovi—favouring personal loyalties over long-standing civic grievances.
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According to Adv Joseph Vaz from Altinho, the result in the 2027 Assembly elections may not be the same because every candidate complained that the delimitation of wards was done in such a way as to make it possible for somebody who could not have won. So this result will not reflect on the ensuing Assembly polls.
“In CCP elections people also vote for the local candidate. But Assembly elections will have different equations. There is no doubt that the MLA and the Mayor worked but there were other shortcomings. They said they would get rid of casinos from river Mandovi but it is a nightmare for people during night. Now fish is found to be unfit for consumption. It’s a serious matter and study shows that casino vessels are the cause. Political establishments are mum about it,” Vaz said.
Former State Information Commissioner Adv Juino De Souza said, “Babush Monserrate has become a formidable force by himself winning CCP elections irrespective of his party affiliation. It shows that he can win CCP elections in any circumstances. Secondly, he goes out of his way to help people in his constituency.”
Fr Mouzinho Athaide had something different to say: “I feel it was an internal fight between two BJP groups. One group was led by Minister Monserrate and another by Utpal Parrikar, son of former Chief Minister the late Manohar Parrikar. Was BJP internally in his heart and other parties were misled by him into supporting his panel. In his heart of hearts Utpal has to be BJP, the culture at home is RSS. His aim was not to defeat BJP but Monserrate. How can you expect the son to go against principles of his father? Congress and APP were fools and they were fooled. ”
Congress president Amit Patkar said, “We accept the people’s mandate and will analyse the CCP results. Basically CCP elections are not fought on party lines. Some of our workers wanted to contest elections so we discussed it with the panel. We will analyse the result and see what went wrong even after coming together. We had campaigned for some candidates.”
Senior journalist Sandesh Prabhudesai said, “Basically voters of Panjim are calculative. Right now the major issue in the city is the casino menace, but no contestants were against it. The elections seemed to have nothing to do with issues. It was personal-based elections.”
