Team Herald

PONDA: The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) has expressed strong resentment over the reservation of seven of the 15 wards of Ponda city for the forthcoming municipal elections.

Terming the reservation as an injustice to its sitting councillors, the MGP said that its councillors have done a lot of hard work for the development of their respective ward, but now they can’t contest again due to “illogical reservation”. 

In the 15-member council, the MGP has five councillors, the BJP has nine and the Congress has one.

Local MGP leader Anil Naik slammed the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) and the BJP for reserving seven wards. He alleged that it was a political conspiracy to prevent MGP workers from contesting the municipal elections.

Meanwhile, denying that the reservations were a political conspiracy, BJP Ponda Block President Vishwanath Dalvi said that the municipal elections were not held on party lines and that the reservations were done by the Election Commission and DMA. “The BJP had no role to play in reserving the wards,” he said.

However, substantiating his claim of conspiracy, Anil Naik said that the wards of most of the BJP’s sitting councillors have not been reserved; hence, they can contest the elections. On the other hand, he claimed, the wards of three sitting councillors of MGP have been reserved: Shivanand Sawanth (Ward 12), Vidya Punalekar (ward 13) and the ward of Vincent Paul Fernandes.

Commenting on the reservation, sitting Councillor Venktesh Naik (Ward 4), who had supported BJP in forming the council, also expressed unhappiness over the reservation of the wards. “I am not against reservation, but when we look at the reservations, it is illogical and not according to criteria,” he said. 

Venktesh Naik was instrumental in solving garbage problem in Ponda city. 

When asked whether he would contest the election from any other ward, he said, “If the people support me, I will contest either from Ward 3 or 5.”