MARGAO, OCT 8
The Office of the Returning Officer for the Margao and Cuncolim Municipal Council polls witnessed a heavy rush of candidates on Friday.
A total of 22 nomination papers were filed for the Cuncolim Municipal Council on Friday, while 13 nomination papers were received from candidates contesting the Margao Municipal polls.
Returning Officer Johnson Fernandes said his office has received nomination papers of 22 candidates for the 10-member Cuncolim Civic body.
Candidates who filed their papers on Friday are Crossy Fernandes, Filipinha Victorina Barbosa and Midora Fernandes (Ward No 1), Pratima Gaonkar, Surya Kusta Gaonkar, Chandru Gaunkar and Mangaldas Gaunkar (ward No 2), Leodade Coutniho (ward No 3), Tarachand Govind Desai (ward No 4), Joysilo Coutinho, Noor Mohammed Shah, Anthony Fernandes, Noor Mohamed Shaikh and Shabir Shah (Ward No 5), Premdeep K Desai (ward No 6), Alvis Almeida, Landry Mascarenhas and Feliciano Rodrigues (Ward No 8), John Inacio Monteiro and Xavier Anthony Vaz (ward No 9) and Bindiya Surendra Desai, Sara M Fernandes and Rashmi Desai (ward No 10).
Meanwhile, candidates who have filed their papers for the Margao Municipal elections are Pratap Narcinva Kamat (ward No 1), Jose Silva (Ward No 3), Angelis Pereira and Anwar Sayed (ward no 5), Hamid Mamlekar, Martinho Faleiro and Anwar Shaik (ward No 6), Geeta Prabhu (ward No 7), Luis Rebello (ward No 8), Raju Rajaram Madkaikar (ward no 11), Doris Texeira (ward No 12), Welceslau Sebestiao Fernandes (ward No 14) and Sajjan Naik (Ward No 18).
VASCO REPORTER ADDS: While there have many aspirants for wards allotted to the general, women and other backward classes (OBC) categories in the MMC, there are hardly any takers for the two wards reserved for STs.
Wards 3 and 7, both reserved wards for the ST community ward, has witnessed lukewarm response. The situation is such that the entire election campaign has come to grinding halt in these two wards since not single candidate has emerged from these wards.
With Monday as the last day to file nominations, efforts are now on to get ST candidates from other wards to contest in these two wards. Candidates who had planned to contest from these two wards have accused the government of failing to assess the concentration of a particular community in these wards.
