Team Herald
SANGUEM: A group of over 100 villagers from Netravali Sanguem accompanied by panchayat members Abhijit Dessai, Vithal Gaonkar, Santosh Naik and Prakash Bhagat joined Congress (I) at a simple function held at South Goa District Congress Office, Margao.
The sudden and unexpected move by the three panchayat members and the villagers will have a hard hitting effect in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections for BJP.
The Netravali panchayat except for hilly areas of Verlem and Salgini is a BJP bastion and the panchayat has been literally ruled by BJP over the years.
Political sources in the know informed that it is allegedly the recent political drama which has affected the day to day functioning of the panchayat which led the panchayat members and their supporters join the Congress.
It is pertinent to note here that in February, the Director of Panchayat in an order passed on the complaint lodged by another political activist from the same village, disqualified Sarpanch Rajini Gaonkar and Deputy Sarpanch Abhijit Dessai from their respective posts.
Though the order remains under challenge before the District Court in Margao, the villagers, majority of whom sided with the ousted panchayat members, are allegedly not happy over the orders passed by the Director of Panchayat.
Since the passing of the impugned order, the village panchayat is run by an Administrator at the whims and fancies of the government authorities, alleged panchayat members.
Even a recent meeting convened by Sanguem BDO to elect the new sarpanch and deputy sarpanch had to be cancelled for want of quorum as majority of the panchayat members boycotted the special meeting.
Local Congress leader Joaquim Costa who accompanied the group to the Congress office claimed that more people from the village would join the party in the next few days.
The newly joined members tendered the primary membership forms to the South Goa Congress President Joe Dias in the presence of Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar, MLA Margao Digambar Kamat and others.
