The excuse was of the raising of the sopo rates by the Ponda Municipal Council. But the larger game plan could be that of the control of political dominance of the Ponda belt and the undermining of the local MGP MLA. It could be a chess game to knock of one leg of the MGP trio of the Dhavalikar brothers and the Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar. For all practical purposes it is an internal fight between brothers or rather alliance partners, though all sides have and will deny it. But the stakes are high.
The flashpoint was the raising of the sopo rate with the whole issue starting after a proposal by Councillor Venktesh Naik was put before the council. Naik suggested that the sopo collection be done departmentally by engaging 3 persons and also that the rate be increased from Rs 5 to 10 per square metre for vendors sitting in the open air and vendors sitting in the shed be charged Rs 20. The proposal was put up at the February 20 council meeting.
Then at the April 24 meeting, the council decided to fix the rates at Rs 10 and Rs 20 inside and outside with water and electricity charges to be borne by vendors.
The issue flared up from there.
“The recent developments, agitations and protest rally by vendors were all deliberately created and politically motivated to only create instability in the council which has been efficiently managed for two years,” says PMC chairperson Radhika Naik, accusing those opposing her of having vested interests.
“A 300 per cent hike on the sopo tax is injustice on the vendors and the PMC crossed its limits by hiking the sopo rates. There is a fraud in the PMC sopo tax hike,” says Kishore (Manikrao) Mamlekar, former PMC chief and leading light in the anti-sopo agitation. (See interviews on this page)
However, though this was and still is the flashpoint, the digging in by both sides could denote that this is more than just a clash between the council and the vendors.
The Ponda Municipal Council is an alliance between councillors owing their allegiance to the BJP and MGP with the chairperson Radhika Naik having close links to the BJP after initially being close to the MGP. According to MGP sources, Naik only won because she was backed by the MGP.
Insiders say that there is a big gap between the local MLA Lavoo Mamledar and the council, as the MLA feels that they are not taking him into confidence or keeping him in the loop of things. They say that the council’s thinking is that the MLA show them due deference as they feel that he won because of them.
Also there is a broad consensus that the government is supporting some hardcore BJP councillors like Dalvi, Dessai, etc with more discerning observers feel that the government is supporting the council to undermine the local MLA.
That all said and done, the larger tussle in beyond the realm of the Ponda market and actually in the larger political spectrum.
Ponda has always been a MGP bastion and former MLA Ravi Naik has been lording over it for some time. However, though Naik has been a Congressman and even a Congress chief minister, his roots run very deep into the MGP culture and its ethos.
The BJP-MGP politics is old and very logical, if political observers are to be believed. After the first time they joined together to fight the elections, the original MGP voters found no difference in the parties and basically transferred their votes to the BJP. Except in certain sections due to personal hold of the MLAs like the Dhavalikar brothers, the MGP made way for the BJP.
And now that the BJP is strong not only in the State but at the Centre as well, one way for it to grow is at the expense of the MGP, given that that party still has some hardcore supporters in many areas and in case the Dhavalikar brothers succeed in increasing their areas of influence – retaking what was originally theirs – it will be mostly at the cost of the BJP.
And on the other hand, in case the BJP has to increase its tally, it has to be at the cost of the MGP. So though there are natural allies, but they are so alike that they are also natural competitors given that they are basically fighting for the same space or part of the Goan polity that the MGP once held.
It is this political need and struggle which is the underlying factor behind the Ponda market tussle. The four-month time-line and the interviews on this page tell us exactly how this was played out.
