MARGAO: Despite the attempts of the BJP to thwart the no-confidence motion that was tabled against Avinash Sardesai, the the BJP-backed Sarpanch of Aquem-Baixo village panchayat, the opposition panch members succeeded in voting him out of office.
While this is being seen as a setback to the BJP Navelim MLA Ulhas Tuenkar, the opposition group of five panchas however stated that they are still with the BJP.
Even as BJP leaders tried to stop the no-confidence motion, the five opposition panchas, including Deputy Sarpanch Natasha Dias and the other signatories, Pradeep Prabhakar Acharya, Milind Bhaskar Salunke, Inacio Dias and Pooja Pramod Naik went ahead with their plans to remove the Sarpanch from his chair.
Interestingly, at the special meeting that had been convened to table the no-confidence motion, the outgoing Sarpanch Sardesai had a bitter exchange with former Sarpanch Inacio Dias.
Dias, who spoke about why the opposition group moved the no-confidence motion, accused Sardesai of not taking the other members into confidence and for also allegedly keeping them in the dark about a court-related matter. Dias also alleged that the outgoing Sarpanch had issued an occupancy certificate for a certain project even though the members had requested to keep the NOC for the project on hold.
