MARGAO: Cuncolim MLA Clafasio Dias survived a major scare as Minaxi Gaonkar who had filed her nomination as an independent candidate from Guirdolim constituency for the Zilla Panchayat elections, withdrew her papers on Saturday.
Five years ago, when Guirdolim constituency was reserved for OBC women, Clafasio asked Minaxi to contest the polls while he contested successfully from neighbouring Curtorim.
However, Minaxi created a scare in the Clafasio camp as she filed her nomination as an independent candidate leading to speculation that she was protesting against Clafasio deserting the Congress to join the BJP.
Clafasio clarified that Minaxi approached him and told him that her supporters had asked her to withdraw and hence he drove her to the Mathany Saldanha Administrative Complex to withdraw her papers.
Incidentally, Sonia Fernandes who is the Congress candidate in Guirdolim was earlier associated with the Goa Forward Party.
