PANAJI
The elections to the panchayat polls in Tiswadi saw an overwhelming majority of new faces getting elected even though several old timers managed to hold onto their citadel.
In Carambolim, seven of the nine panchas elected are new faces while in the nine-member Se Old Goa panchayat, six faces are also first-timers. Similarly, the nine-member Corlim panchayat saw five new faces getting elected as also four new faces, of the total seven in St Estevam. In Sao Mathias too, six of the seven panchas are new while the 7-member Goltim-Navelim panchayat saw five new faces getting elected.
In the 11-member Merces VP, seven are new faces while in neighbouring Santa Cruz nine of the eleven panchas are elected for the first time. In Chimbel, eight of the eleven elected are new faces.
In Goa Velha, six of the nine panchas are first-timers whereas in Curca, seven of the eleven elected are fresh faces. In 7-member Neura and Siridao panchayats, six panchas each are elected for the first time. In Azossim-Mandur, five of the seven panchas are fresh faces.
In Chodan too, eight of the nine panchas are new.
Meanwhile, some of the prominent faces who managed to get re-elected included Francisco Po and Paulina Oliveira from Azossim-Mandur; Francisco de Souza from Batim; Rajesh Naik from Carambolim; Manisha Chopdekar, Sandesh Chopdekar and Rosy Uttikuri from Chimbel; Goraknath Kerekar, Supriya Kerkar and Baptista Pereira from Corlim; Maria Leena da Cunha, Sushma Shirodkar, Diona Korgaonkar, and Suryakant Andrade from Curca; Mario Pinto from Goltim-Navelim; Sushant Govekar, Sandhya Hoble and Mukesh Shirgaonkar from Merces; Vishwas Kuttikar from Se Old Goa; Nutan Shirodkar from Siridao; Iyno de Souza, Francisco D'Souza and Andre Pereira from Goa Velha; Lafira Oliveira from Santa Cruz; Emmie Fernandes from Agassaim;
Heavyweights bite the dust
PANAJI
The panchayat elections proved to be a setback for the heavyweights as they were made to bite the dust by their opponents, particularly the youngsters.
Among the biggest setback was that of five-time panch Chandrakant Kunkolkar losing to a newcomer Drishti Kavlekar by 39 votes. Also, former panch Mohan Narve was third behind the winner Shankar Naik as also his wife and former panch Mohini Narve also coming third behind the winner Madhulo Mada.
Another setback was witnessed in Agassaim wherein former sarpanch Francisco Gracias had to concede defeat to 22-year-old Lakshadeep Gawas by 5 votes.
In Curca, former sarpanch Subhash Shirodkar who was a panch multiple times was defeated by Mahanand Kundaikar by 38 votes.
In Merces, former deputy sarpanch Armstrong Braganza stood third behind the winner Pramod Kamat.
In Se Old Goa, heavyweight Nilkanth Bhomkar had to bite the dust against a newcomer Sapna Bhomkar who won by a huge margin of 194 votes.
