PANJIM: The Congress, with the backing of former Panjim mayor Surendra Furtado, is set to field candidates in all 30 wards for the March 6 Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) elections. This could prove a major setback to the Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate panel and give the BJP an upper hand. The final decision to contest will be taken by the party executive committee.
“We are yet to take a decision on contesting the CCP polls. I will put up the proposal before my executive committee for a decision,” Congress president Luizinho Faleiro told Herald.
Though, Faleiro refused to come clear on the issue, former deputy mayor Rudresh Chodankar said the Congress has decided to contest the polls. “Why will Congress back an unattached MLA’s panel? It is a political party and has shown interest in contesting,” he said.
“Congress was always supporting Monserrate and hence never contested. But this time they felt that party should field its own panel,” he said.
The move to field a panel comes after the party, which in the past had backed Monserrate who earlier was a Congress member, decided not to support the unattached St Curz MLA’s panel.
Chodankar, a sitting councillor from the Monserrate panel, and Furtado approached State Congress president Faleiro with a proposal to field a party-backed panel for the CCP polls. Furtado has assured all support to Congress, and he and his wife Ruth will contest on Congress panel.
Chodankar said the party has already begun the process to identify candidates in all 30 wards, and the final list would be out within a week.
It is learnt that Furtado will break ties with Monserrate and contest on the Congress panel. “Furtado met Faleiro and extended his support. He is a Congressman and will stand by the party,” Chodankar claimed.
Though Furtado had joined hands with Monserrate for the upcoming polls, the latter did not seem keen on projecting Furtado as Mayor, which had upset the former.
