TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Even as Corporation of the City of Panjim mayoral elections are likely to be held by the end of this month, with March 28 projected as the tentative date, and despite the Atanasio Babush Monserrate group tentatively agreeing to support present mayor Surendra Furtado with councilor Kabir Makhija as his deputy, there appear to be fissures forming within the group. Given the importance and the significance of these elections, the BJP backed group is sparing no efforts to forge a majority.
After a closed door meeting it was agreed that the Babush backed group would support Furtado’s candidature given that he and his wife Ruth are the deciding factors in the numbers game. Both the BJP backed group – due to the presence of former mayor’s Tony Rodrigues and Carolina Po on its side –and the Monserrate backed group have similar numbers.
However, a slight change here or there will change the equation and there are strong indications that long time councilor Rudresh Chodankar is hell bent on contesting the mayoral elections.
This time around, the elections are important in the overall political scenario given that there maybe a change of guard at the Centre. The results for the polls will be out by May 16 even as the state goes to polls on April 12.
In the likelihood of exit polls being proved right and NDA comes to power and in the eventuality of chief minister and Panjim MLA Manohar Parrikar going to the Centre, given his closeness to Narendra Modi, there would be a re-election for the Panjim seat where Surendra Furtado could be a contender for the Congress ticket like last time.
The CCP elections become crucial for the present mayor given his ambitions to use this as a stepping stone to the Assembly. It is equally crucial for Rudresh – given that he was always an aspirant for the Panjim ticket and even more crucial for the chief minister if he is not going to be in state politics. Rudresh contested the last assembly elections from Mayem on a NCP ticket and lost quite badly.
Last year too, the CCP elections were quite prickly and the matter went to court. However, the public and media pressure forced the government to back down and the present mayor was installed. The chief minister has obviously not forgotten that and this time – especially given the overall importance – the CCP elections mayor would prove to be a hotly contested affair.
