PANJIM: The Akhil Gomantak Mahargan Mahasabha (AGMM) on Monday protested the alleged injustice that was meted out to the candidate for the upcoming Sanguem Municipal Council elections, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC).
The group pointed out that the Sanguem-Quepem Dalit Sangatna had supported Adv Poornima Panchwadkar who had filed her nomination for the polls as they wanted the SC women community to have due representation, which was absent in Sanguem as opposed to other municipalities that are going and have gone for polls.
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However, Panchwadkar’s application was rejected by the election authority. Alleging this was done to benefit the chances of a political party that had also fielded a candidate in the same ward as Panchwadkar, the AGMM accused the Sanguem Deputy Collector of verbally insulting Panchwadkar.
Stating that this by itself amounted to an insult to their community, the AGMM also argued against the reasons given for rejecting Panchwadkar’s nomination, which was because she had presented a caste certificate from Karnataka. They also alleged that leaders of the aforementioned political party had sent messages to them asking them to withdraw Panchwakdar’s nomination as their party wanted to ensure their candidate’s victory.
Saying all of this was undemocratic, the AGMM added that caste certificates from whichever part of the country can be submitted as per the rules and laws of the country and said the election authority had wrongly rejected her application.
