MARGAO: With less than two months left for the Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to step down as per the ‘rotational agreement’ within the ruling group of councillors, all eyes are on who will replace Lyndon Pereira as the chief of the civic body.
It may be recalled that Pereira, who is from the Goa Forward Party (GFP) camp, was elected unopposed as the Chairperson on May 27, 2021. At the same time, Deepali Sawal, from the camp backed by Margao Congress MLA Digambar Kamat, was also elected unopposed as the Vice-Chairperson.
The two camps, backed by GFP and Kamat respectively, had contested the municipal polls last year under the banner of ‘Margao Civic Alliance’ and together they had won 17 of the 25 seats, leaving the BJP-backed councillors in the minority group.
After the results, there was a ‘rotational agreement’ within this alliance wherein GFP’s Pereira would step down as Chairperson after 15 months in power, and the same applied to Vice-Chairperson Sawal from the Kamat camp. Post that, a councillor from Kamat’s camp was to be elected as the new Chairperson while a councillor from GFP’s camp was to be elected as the Vice-Chairperson.
While some councillors like Mahesh Amonkar, Damu Shirodkar and Ghanashyam Shirodkar were upset that a GFP councillor was chosen as the chairperson, they still extended their support to Pereira.
However, according to sources, both Damu and Ghanashyam, veteran councillors, are now eyeing the post of chairperson. While Damu has been a long-time aide of Kamat and enjoys the support of the Kamat camp, Ghanashyam has positioned himself as an independent candidate, and not part of any camp.
On the other hand, the GFP camp had seen Sweta Lotlikar join the BJP prior to the elections. While BJP still does not have the numbers, the recent speculation of Kamat joining BJP has led to the belief that the BJP camp too will weigh in on deciding who the next chairperson will be.
