As per a notification issued by the Elections Commission, Wards 5 and 6 will be reserved for women, Ward 4 for OBCs, and Ward 9 for OBC women.
Pradeep Gaonkar will square off with former Valpoi chairman Anil Katkar in Ward 1, whose residents are mostly concerned about lack of cleanliness in the area. Councillor and former chairman Ramdas Shirodkar will take on social activist Prakash Zarmekar in Ward 2.
The voters of Ward 3 will have seven candidates to choose from: Vishwesh Prabhu, Roshan Desai, Atul Datye, Baptist Dias, Fakirsahab Shah, Vincent De Souza and Motiram Shirodkar. Ward 4 will have four candidates: Yogidas Chari, Guruprasad Chari, Suraj Chari and Rashikant Chari. The biggest issues in this area are garbage and unemployment.
Praveena Idrus Shaikh, wife of Councillor Idrus Shaikh, and Mubeena Harshad Shaikh will contest from Ward 5, while Praveena Sharafat Khan, wife of Chairman Sharafat Khan, will take on former Chairman Gulzar B Khan and Fatima Javed Shaikh in Ward 6.
Social activist Sarfaraz Sayad, former councillor Abdul Munir Beig and Rafiq Akram Naikwadi will contest from Ward 7, while Councillor Umesh Gulelkar, former chairman Akhtar Shah and Prasad Teli will square off in Ward 8.
In the OBC-reserved Ward 9, Anjali Chari, who has been backed by Valpoi MLA Vishwajit Rane, will take on independent candidate Gulab Chari. Incidentally, Rane had also done door-to-door campaigning in support of
Anjali.
Finally, social activist Ashish Kanekar will take on Councillor Sahazin Shaikh and Pankaj Kanekar, son of former chairman Ramdas Kanekar, in Ward 10, which is located in the heart of Valpoi. The garbage, gutters and employment are the main issue in this ward.
