VASCO: The BJP won 14 out of 25 wards of Mormugao municipality, while 19 of the elected candidates are new faces. Industrialist Narayan Bandekar’s panel won from five wards, followed by four independents and a candidate each of Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho and former minister Jose Philip D’Souza.
It was a major victory for Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida, who got 8 out of 11 candidates from his panel elected. Mormugao MLA Milind Naik managed to get 6 out of 9 candidates elected. The biggest loser was Bandekar, who floated a panel of 24 candidates – nine jointly with Congress leader Sankalp Amonkar – but could manage to get only two of his own and three of Amonkar’s candidates elected.
One out of four candidates supported by Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho got elected, while former Minister MLA Jose Philip D’Souza could get only his brother Pascoal D’Souza elected from his seven-member panel.
The highest winning margin was 850 votes by Krishna Salkar from Ward 13. Ward 22 witnessed a neck-and-neck fight, where Rajan Fhaldesai defeated Rupesh Shivlingkar by a single vote after recounting.
The elections also saw some heavyweights losing; former chairperson Shekhar Khadapkar from Ward 1 lost by 45 votes, Fiola Rego lost by 322 votes, and Vice-Chairperson Tara Kerkar ranked third in Ward 21.
It is learnt that BJP’s Deepak Naik is a top contender for the chairperson’s post.
The winning candidates are Ward 1 – Sandesh Mesta ; Ward 2 – Bhavana Bhosle; Ward 3 – Shashikant Parab; Ward 4 – Damodar Kaskar; Ward 5 – Sarita Palkar; Ward 6 – Nilesh Navelkar; Ward 7 – Shradha Amonkar; Ward 8 – Murari Bandekar; Ward 9 – Leo Rodrigues; Ward 10 – Dhanpal Swami Kuppaswami; Ward 11 – Saifula Khan; Ward 12 – Deepak Naik; Ward 13 – Krishna Salkar; Ward 14 – Lavin D’Souza; Ward 15 – Nandadeep Raut; Ward 16 – Rochana Borkar; Ward 17 – Pascoal D’Souza; Ward 18 – Reema Sonurlekar; Ward 19 – Fedrick Henriques; Ward 20 – Vandana Satardekar; Ward 21 – Yatin Kamurlekar ; Ward 22 – Rajan Fhaldesai; Ward 23 – Shridhar Mardolkar; Ward 24 – Bhavana Nanoskar and Ward 25 – Kritesh Gaunkar Naik
