Team Herald
PANJIM: Campaigning for the five municipal councils ended on Wednesday evening. Polling will be held on Friday from 8am to 5pm.
A total of 1,85,225 voters will decide the fate of 402 candidates who are in the fray in the five municipal councils of Mormugao, Margao, Mapusa, Quepem and Sanguem.
By-polls will be held in ward 2 of Karapur-Sarvan panchayat in Bicholim taluka and ward 4 of Velim panchayat in Salcete taluka.
Though municipal elections are not fought on party lines, leaders of various political parties campaigned for the candidates backed by their respective parties.
In Margao, leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and Goa Forward Party have left no stone unturned to woo the voters in all 25 wards.
In Margao, Parag Gajanan Raikar and Sunil Krishnanath Naik, both sons of former MLAs are trying their political fortunes. Both are supported by BJP and are locked in triangular fights in wards 18 and 22 respectively. Congress has backed former chairperson Ghaynashyam Shirodkar in ward 18 and Damodar Varak in ward 22.
In Mormugao, 18 polling booths have been declared as sensitive.
All restaurants, eateries and wholesale and retail liquor shops within the jurisdiction of five municipal councils and in two wards of village panchayats will be closed on the polling day from 6am to 9pm and from 6am to till end of counting of votes on April 26.
Similarly, both Collectors have banned any gathering or crowd comprising more than five persons within 200 metres of any polling stations in the jurisdiction of five municipal councils and in two wards of panchayats on the polling day.
The government has declared a public holiday on April 23 for voters of five municipal councils on account of polling.
