Internal strife has hit the BJP-backed ‘Panjim First’ panel ahead of the elections to the Corporation of City of Panjim (CCP). The ruling party, which desperately wants to wrest control of the city corporation, has been hit hard by rebels – directly or indirectly – and this is giving local MLA Siddharth Kunkolienkar a tough time. The MLA has much to prove in the absence of his predecessor, former Panjim MLA Manohar Parrikar.
As many as eight BJP karyakartas have filed their nominations for the CCP polls either on the Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate panel or as independent candidates.
These include – Sagar Chari, Manoj Patil, Devendra Kundaikar and Rahul Lotlikar (Monserrate panel) and sitting councilor Ratnakar Fatarpekar, worker Jyoti Masurkar, Tushar Asulkar.
BJP’s Panjim block committee vice president Santosh Akhadkar is also contesting as an (independent).
Of the 14 councilors, BJP has re-nominated six, while in one case the ticket has been given to the husband of a sitting councilor – Nivedita Chopdekar from ward No 28.
The other sitting six, including Fatarpekar (contesting from ward No 18) have now become direct or indirect rebels, wherein most of the sitting councilors, upset over being denied tickets to themselves or their favoured candidate, will extend support to non-BJP candidates.
The BJP rebels contesting as Independent have remained firm on their decision, as even after several attempts the saffron party failed to convince them to withdraw their candidature.
The BJP panel has been hit so hard by anti-party workers that certain wards, stronghold of the party, have the most number of candidates. Ward 25 has nine candidates, Ward 24 has six candidates, Wards 7, 8, 12, 18, 29 and 30 have five to four candidates each.
BJP workers are also not happy with the decision to bring back old faces like Menino Da Cruz (ward No 19) and Rupesh Halarnkar (Ward No 30), both who had lost the 2011
elections.
