BJP-backed panel versus BJP rebels take centre stage in Panjim

PANJIM: When the battle lines were being drawn for the elections of The Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), it was supposed to have been a fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition even as the polls were not supposed to have been fought on party lines.
Trouble arose, when BJP endorsed a panel selected by Panjim MLA Atanasio Babush Monserrate that created resentment among a section of the BJP party base in Panjim, as many ticket aspirants were ignored in favour of candidates, Babush felt were the best choice to win the polls.
While the BJP tried their best to curtail the voices of dissent emerging from within the party, the open rebellion was made quite clear on Saturday, the day of elections.
There were members of the BJP party contesting against the BJP panel in some wards while members were supporting candidates who had stood against the BJP panel. There were also former members of BJP who were CCP corporators who were contesting or supporting candidates against the BJP panel.
Reacting to this, BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade, categorically stated that there will be no impact from the rebel BJP group on the CCP polls.
“I have said this before and our Panjim MLA Babush Monserrate has also said this a few days back, that we (BJP) will win all thirty seats in Panjim. Party workers (rebels) need to follow our (BJP) discipline. A decision will be taken against those leaders involved in anti-party activities post the counting of votes,” Tanavade added.
“It was very bad (party members openly supporting rival candidates) as this goes directly against the BJP. This is not the way to act (to rebel just because their choice of candidate was not fielded),” he elaborated further.
Babush was also quite fiery in his response to rebellion camp and used several analogies where he expresses his displeasure over their activities while at the same time emphasising that it didn’t derail his campaign at all.
“Even at the first meeting we had, I was very clear about one thing. Even if they say, let us all meet together and discuss, I said first and was very clear, that I would like to see my enemies in front of me. I don’t like to have my enemies to sit behind me and start stabbing me. I can deal with my enemies in front rather than being my friends who stab me in the back,” said Babush.
Responding to queries he said, he knew who this rebel group was as this was not the first time they had tried to work against him or his wife, the Taleigao BJP MLA Jennifer Monserrate in the recently concluded Zilla Panchayat elections. He pointed out that such activities bore no fruit and that he was confident that their attempts will amount to nothing as ultimately it the people who will decide. He recalled that his panel had won the CCP polls three times in a row for which he was thankful to the people and that he is now thankful to the BJP for giving him the opportunity to field this panel for all 30 seats, which he said he was sure of winning.
When asked about what action should be taken against the rebel group, he said it for the party to decide not him.
However, he remarked that presently, only 50 per cent of the BJP karyakartas were with the party decision (regarding the panel selected), which indicated he felt the remaining 50 were against his panel.
He emphasised that he isn’t going to be leaving BJP, in an indirect message to his BJP colleagues that they would have to digest that fact sooner or later. He also ridiculed his opposition for not having a vision and said their only objective was to defeat him as opposed to coming together for Panjim. He also said the opposition doesn’t have leaders and questioned if the group that comprised members of various parties like Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) etc, would take responsibility if they lose the polls.