Team Herald
Margao: Two persons have been elected for the third term at the South Goa Zilla Panchayat (ZP) and their wives were elected for one term thus establishing that they have total control over the ZP constituency.
Interestingly one of them does not even want to think of contesting the assembly elections as he is totally loyal to the present MLA while the other has some political aspirations.
Kushali Jorgo Velip has been elected for the third term from the Barcem constituency, which was represented by his wife Savita Velip from 2005 to 2010. Domnic Minguel Gaonkar, who has been elected from Raia constituency, was earlier elected from the same constituency in 2005 and 2010 and in the last term, his wife Fatima was elected from Raia to the ZP.
Interestingly Kushali has no ambition of contesting the assembly elections and is quite satisfied looking after the ZP constituency. “I am a loyal supporter of (Chandrakant) Babu Kavlekar and as long as he is the MLA of the area (Quepem), I shall not even consider contesting the Assembly elections,” he said adding that his loyalty is to Babu irrespective of which party he joins.
On the other hand Domnic has some political ambitions which have not crystallised yet. In fact Domnic was supposed to join Congress earlier this year but changed his mind at the last minute.
“My supporters asked me to contest the ZP elections as an independent and not any party candidate and that is why I did not join the Congress then,” he said while asserting that he will have to consult his supporters whether to join Congress now.
Five other persons have been elected for the second term from the same constituency and they are Dipak Tiru Naik Borkar from Borim; Ulhas Yeshwant Tuenkar from Davorlim; Suvarna Subodh Prabhu Tendulkar from Savordem; Shanu Shankalu Velip from Cola; and Antonio Vas from Cortalim.
Ulhas Yeshwant Tuenkar was earlier a panchayat member and has also contested the Assembly elections in the past. Interestingly, Antonio Vas has been elected as an independent candidate for the second term from Cortalim defeating the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party candidates.
