MAPUSA
The secret of the ruling combination in Anjuna panchayat was finally out on Monday.
A group of seven panch members made up of Congress, BJP and Independents joined hands to elect an Independent as the sarpanch of the village.
Laxmidas Chimulkar, who in his first election defeated former long-serving sarpanch Savio Almeida, was elected unopposed while Agnes Carvalho was elected as his deputy.
Incidentally, the group of seven were forced to address a press conference to clarify their position that they had no truck with any political party and came together for the development of the village. They said their group will be Independent.
“We are a team of seven members who are from BJP, Congress and Independents but we want to clear our position that we are not backed by any politician or a political party. We are Independent and have come together only for the development of the village,” said Dinesh Patel, a staunch BJP karyakarta.
“We want the support of the present and former MLAs. We will also meet the chief minister to get work done for the village,” he added.
He said the group was forced to clarify because soon after the election of the sarpanch and the deputy, local MLA Delilah Lobo came to wish them and shot a photo with their group.
“The photo along with the MLA soon went viral with people questioning our stand. We are very clear that our group is Independent with no political leanings. But we want support from everyone, past and present MLAs,” he said.
Newly elected Sarpanch, Laximdas Chimulkar said that he did not consider his achievement of defeating the former sarpanch as a huge task.
“In an election one person has to win. The giant killer tag attached to me is given by the people. It’s just that people wanted a change,” Chimulkar said.
He also said that he has no affiliation with either the BJP or the Congress party and he would like to maintain his identity as an Independent.
Four-time panch member, Surendra Govekar informed that since Anjuna village was along the coastal belt it was heavily dependent on tourism.
“We want development of tourism infrastructure in the village,” Govekar said.
