Margao: After two days of high volt political drama the Returning Officer for Fatorda has finally allowed the Congress candidature of Jose Silva (Joseph Silva). The Returning Officer Uday Prabhudessai on Thursday ruled in favor of the candidature of Silva for Congress after asking him to furnish his Congress membership documents. Meanwhile yet another complaint filed by the Congress candidate against the discrepancies in the affidavit of Vijai Sardesai and his spouse has been struck down and his candidature has been finalised.
The drama of the Fatorda Congress ticket and the negotiations of the Congress GFP have been going on for several days now. On Thursday it was the final verdict day for the fate of Silva. The Fatorda Returning Officer along with the Observer of the two constituencies took up the scrutiny of Fatorda first.
The scrutiny began at 11 am where all the other nominations were cleared and then the issue of two nominations of Joseph was taken up. The hearing went on for over 40 minutes after which the RO gave an hour’s time to Silva to produce the Congress membership document. As the suspense unfolded piece by piece over the nomination issue it was said that even if Congress had to withdraw the Form B issued to Silva it had to be done before 3 pm, the deadline of filing nominations. (See box)
Another petition filed by Silva at the Returning Officer against deficiencies in the affidavit of Sardesai was also heard. At 1 pm Silva produced the letter signed by GPCC President Luizinho Faleiro stating that Silva is a member and a Block President of the Fatorda Congress block. Later the complaint of discrepancies in affidavit and the nomination issue was kept for order at 4 pm.
After several nervous moments in the RO Chamber Silva’s Congress nomination was accepted making him the official Congress candidate of Fatorda, Silva wrote to the RO asking for cancellation of the GVP candidature. The RO struck down the complaint of the affidavit and also allowed the nomination of Sardesai.
The Congress Fatorda Block said, “Fatorda Congress has condemned the statement of the Election Officer Narayan Navti and have demanded stepping down of Navti for making false statement of disqualification of Silva. We will be forced to file a complain before election commission as well as ST commission if he doesn’t step down immediately.”
Meanwhile, reacting to the developments, Sardesai said, “This is the second betrayal after 2012 and now 2017, and I am not new to this, I had predicted this. Last time there was an uncertainty over the person involved in the betrayal but this time it is clear who is responsible. I am not worried and till voting time the person who is responsible for the betrayal will be exposed. People have shown their sides last election even after a similar problem that occurred last time and this time too they will show.”
