Battle lines drawn for Panjim municipal polls
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JAN 11
Even though the dates for CCP elections are yet to be announced the battle lines seem to have been drawn already.
While Taleigao legislator Babush Monserrate has been ahead of others garnering support for his thirty member panel — Panjim City Corporation Development Front (PCCDF) for elections scheduled in March, his opponents are busy working out strategies to defeat him.
A first straw came from corporator Adv Avinash Bhonsle who was elected on PCCDF panel but fell out with Monserrate, recently.
When Monserrate declared his panel on January 1, 2011 Adv Bhonsle’s name was missing from the list.
Adv Bhonsle who is also the General Secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has now wowed to “teach Babush a lesson.”
On Monday, the NCP announced its plans to float a panel.
“It will field candidates in all thirty wards of the CCP and will join hands with like-minded people,” said Adv Bhonsle .
Unlike last time which was more-or-less a direct fight between Babush and BJP panels, the tussle this time is likely to be fiercer with the entry of more players.
“We want to fight “draconian attitude” of the Taleigao man, said Adv Bhonsle adding “he (Babush) thinks Panjim has been donated to him and wants to cultivate it into his fiefdom like Taleigao.”
“We oppose this attitude of Babush,” he continued.
The NCP has formed a core committee under former tourism minister and Benualim MLA Mickky Pacheco.
Interestingly, former mayor Ashok Naik who had declared that he would not contest municipal elections again in 2005, has also changed his plans and will head BJP’s panel to fight Babush from capturing CCP again.
When asked to explain his decision, Naik said many well wishers and prominent citizens of Panjim have urged him to contest again to clear the mess and corruption in the CCP.
Naik is all set to contest from ward 14 against Deputy Mayor Yatin Parekh.
Also, corporator Surendra Furtado who has been quite vocal about wrong-doings of some ruling corporators, have decided to field his son Vladimir Furtado from ward 11.
His wife Ruth Furtado who is also a sitting corporator will contest from ward 10 for the third term.
Babush has joined hands with St Cruz MLA, Victoria Fernandes whom he had antagonized by fielding his wife Jennifer Fernandes on UGDP ticket in 2007 assembly election.
But his tie-up is unlikely to be of any great help to him beyond Ribandar.
But he can take solace in the fact that former councilor Patricio Pinto who had raised her voice on issues concerning Panjim will not be contesting this time.
When contacted, Pinto clarified that though they were earlier thinking of supporting some clean and good candidates but have changed their plans now.
Why? “It’s because there’s no guarantee that on being elected with our support they will not jump to the other side. We cannot have any control on them,” she pointed out.
