A wide disparity in the number of voters in different wards of the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) was witnessed during the recently held delimitation, with the total number of voters reducing by 500 in a total of 30 wards. However, both BJP’s and Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate panels sitting councilors don’t feel that this could have any major impact on the voting pattern.
During the March 2011 elections, the CCP had nearly 32,090 voters, which has declined to 31,504 for the upcoming council elections, scheduled on March 6. The decline in the number of voters is attributed to migration or shifting of the population outside the Corporation jurisdiction or dual registration. Even as it was alleged that the delimitations are undertaken to favour the BJP panel, the councilors feel that it is ultimately the “voters” who will take final call.
“See, 500 is not a big number and I don’t feel it could have any impact on the Monserrate-led panel. The declining voters list, can be attributed to migration of people from that ward outside the CCP jurisdiction or outside Panjim itself,” former Mayor and sitting councilor Yatin Parekh told Herald.
The delimitation results show that as many as 17 wards have reported a decrease in the number of voters, while the 13 wards have seen a sharp increase. While wards like number 3, ruled by the Monserrate panel’s Margarida Fernandes and number 25 of BJP’s Shubhada Dhond have over 1500 voters, ward no 28 ruled by BJP’s Nivedita Chopdekar has only 703 voters.
“This itself, clearly shows that the delimitation has not been done to favour BJP. There are several wards ruled by BJP (4, 12, 22 etc) where the number of voters seen a major decline. The process was undertaken by the government and the same is been before High Court also. There are no discrepancies,” a BJP sitting councilor, refusing to get quoted said.
As per the notification, Ward No 4, ruled by sitting councilor Carolina Po, has witnessed a major decline with a total of 451 voters getting deleted. This is closely followed by ward 16 ruled by Pascoela Mascarenhas, with 378 voters on the decline.
However, a close look at the delimitation final list gives a different picture. It indicates that the Monserrate panel plus two independents- Surendra Furtado and Ruth-(total 16 wards) will have a major impact with voters from nearly 12 wards being on the decline, while the increase is in case of only five wards. On the other hand, the BJP has managed to gain in nine wards.
“The delimitation process is been undertaken to facilitate the BJP. The process is been undertaken by the BJP-led government itself, so the question about whom it will benefit does not arise,” councilor Rudresh Chodankar said.
Wards No 9 and 10, post delimitation have witnessed a decline in 121 voters together. Of the total 30 wards, 16 wards have voters above 1000 while in 14 wards, voters population is between 600 to 950.
“The process of delimitation has been done in a haphazard and irrational manner wherein two members of a family living under the same roof have been placed in two separate wards,” former deputy Mayor and sitting councilor Kabir Pinto Makhija said demanding that the High court should take cognizance of it and direct Municipal administration and election commission to make the
correction.
He pointed out how the entire Campal heritage precinct has been removed from ward No 11 and put into ward No 12.
The March 2011 election, held a year before the Assembly election, witnessed a tie between BJP and Monserrate, with BJP managing to get support from the Furtado couple. However, with two years, Surendra and Ruth went in support of Monserrate, with both now announcing to contest the coming polls together.
