PONDA: Amidst Covid 19 scare, the electorate has almost forgotten the Zilla Panchayat elections scheduled on March 22. However, party leaders accompanied by the candidates are going door-to-door to woo the voters.
According to political observers, since the election is being held on party lines, party leaders and local MLAs cannot afford to ignore it, as the outcome of the Zilla polls is an indication of the trend in 2022 Assembly elections.
“The prestige of political parties and their leaders are at stake; they cannot afford to ignore seven ZP seats spread over four Assembly constituencies in Ponda talauka,” political observer said.
The seven Zilla seats in Ponda taluka are Usgao-Ganjem, Bethki-Khandola, Curti, Veling-Priol, Quela, Borim and Shiroda.
MGP leaders Ramakrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar, his brother Deepak, Congress leader Ravi Naik, BJP leaders Vinay Tendulkar and Subash Shirodkar and Independent MLA Govind Gaude are working hard to get their respective candidates elected.
While campaigning for his candidate at Curti, Sudin expressed confident that MGP would secure 70 percent of the votes in ZP elections.
The BJP is contesting all the seven seats; MGP six except Usgao-Ganjem; and Congress two — Curti and Usgao-Ganjem. A total of 28 candidates are in fray for the seven constituencies.
