Strangely after the votes have been counted and the results declared neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress can claim victory in the Ponda and Sanquelim municipal council elections. What is even more ironic is that neither can the local MLAs representing the two towns in the Legislative Assembly claim victory. The electorate of the two towns has given a verdict that at first glance is not entirely in favour of the establishment. Not entirely, because in one of the towns, a partner in the government has come close to a majority. The biggest setback is to the BJP, which lost power in Ponda, and failed to wrest Sanquelim.
The results also come as a setback to the MLAs of the two towns – Speaker Dr Pramod Sawant in Sanquelim and former CM Ravi Naik in Ponda. Neither have been able to take control of the town councils, that are important for the grassroots connect, and this calls for a minute analysis of the results of the two towns.
In Ponda the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) came close to victory but fell one seat short of the majority mark. Should it take support of the BJP, who it is in alliance with, the party will be in a very comfortable position to have its panel take control of the council, but MGP and BJP decided to go it alone in the polls, each trying to prove its strength in the town. That is one alliance that the MGP would not be willing to enter into, as Ponda, for the party, is a strategic town and constituency in its future plans of furthering the party’s fortunes. During the campaign to the polls, the MGP made it clear that Ponda was important for them, and they wouldn’t let it go easily. Here, MGP got seven seats, two more than it had got five years ago, while BJP that held the reins of the council fell from nine to five, and Congress improved its tally going from one to three. Given little to choose from, a MGP-BJP panel is likely to take charge of the council here.
As results were declared in Sanquelim, the first reaction was that Congress had won in this town, but that changed when the leader of the winning panel categorically stated that his panel was not supported by any political party, and was formed in his individual capacity. Dharmesh Salami, the leader of the panel, is a Congressman. He was chairman of the council and has been voted back to power in this town. This could turn rather interesting as Sanquelim, going by people’s responses, has suffered in terms of development due to the rivalry between the Chairman, Saglani, and the MLA, Dr Pramod Sawant. With both now back in the same positions, they would have to set aside their differences so that the town and its people do not suffer from lack of development.
Development is what the people in Ponda and Sanquelim demand. While both towns need an upgrade of the existing infrastructure, besides new projects, Ponda in particular has been looking for a traffic management plan that would ease the congestion in the town.
For the ruling coalition that has fared badly, this is a wake-up call that it has to take seriously. The people want a government that is functioning, a government that has the people’s interests at heart. The past few months have seen a number of agitations against the government. The results at Ponda and Sanquelim could well be another reflection of the people’s angst that has already been seen and felt at public meetings. But it can act as a catalyst for change only if the government is listening.
