TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: A sulking Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party which demanded 19 Zilla Panchayat seats but got only nine has announced the names of eight candidates for the March 18 elections. Only two of these are incumbent ZP members and four are women.
The party is yet to finalize the candidate for the Usgao-Ganjem ZP seat. The MGP is contesting a total of nine ZP seats, in alliance with the BJP, which has cornered 34 seats for itself.
MGP has given nominations (tickets) to two incumbent ZP members – Shivdas Gawade (ST) for Priol constituency and Aparna Bhoj Naik from Sancoale. During the 2012 ZP election, Gawade was backed by MGP, while Naik joined the MGP Monday morning. Sancoale is a new seat offered to the MGP, which had contested seven ZP seats during the last election.
The other MGP candidates who have nominated include Disha Kavlekar from St Cruz, Sandip Vernekar (OBC) from Chimbel, Babita Gaonkar (woman) from Betki, Vithoba Velip (ST) from Barcem, Mohan Verekar from Khandepar and Chitra Fadte (OBC-woman) from Karle.
“We have given almost 40 per cent reservation to women,” MGP president Pandurang (Deepak) Dhavalikar told media. The candidate for Usgao-Ganjem will be finalized by Tuesday.
“Our aim is to get all nine candidates elected,” he said, expressing displeasure over non-granting of Morjim ZP seat to them by the BJP.
MGP senior leader and PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar said that people voted for change in the 2012 Assembly elections and so the party is confident that people will vote for change in the ZP elections too.
“Our alliance government has fulfilled most of the promises made the election manifesto. Yes, some development works are pending, but we will complete these before the end of our tenure in 2017,” he said.
Meanwhile, former four-time MGP MLA and Tribal leader Prakash Velip has extended his support to the BJP-MGP alliance in the ZP elections. Velip, who was present at the MGP headquarters, said that as an independent he will work for the BJP-MGP alliance.
