BICHOLIM
It was a day of intense political drama at Sankhali Municipal Council (SMC) as the BJP-backed panel failed in moves to prevent the Congress from taking control of the council and SMC Chairperson Yeshwant Madkar was ousted in a no-confidence motion by 7-0 votes on Friday.
All six BJP-backed councillors, including Madkar, did not attend the meeting, after councillor Raya Parsekar from the Congress group was cleared to attend the no-confidence motion and the Congress-backed 'Together for Sankhali' panel had all its seven councillors in the 13-member council to participate in the meeting.
The Congress-backed group present at the meeting were Dharmesh Saglani, Raya Parsekar, Rajesh Sawal, Rajendra Ameshkar, Jyoti Blagan, Kunda Madkar and Ansira Khan.
Following a disqualification petition filed by Madkar, Parsekar had been directed to appear for a hearing before Urban Development Minister Milind Naik in Mormugao at 12.30 pm, while the no-confidence motion against SMC Chairperson Yashwant Madkar was to come up for discussion in Sankhali at 2.30 pm.
The Saglani panel challenged the matter in the high court and the high court provided relief to Parsekar, enabling him to attend the no-confidence motion.
Then, a complaint against Parsekar was also filed at the Bicholim police station in what was viewed as another attempt to prevent Parsekar from voting in the no-confidence motion.
However, a lower court granted anticipatory bail to Parsekar and with the Saglani panel securing relief in both courts, the seven councillors were confident of ousting Madkar in the no-confidence motion.
All six BJP councillors, Yeshwant Madkar, Anand Kanekar, Rashmi Desai, Shubhada Sawaikar, Brahmanand Desai and Dayanand Boryekar were absent at the meeting.
Returning officers Rajesh Azgaonkar and Deepak Vaingankar later told reporters that a no-confidence motion was passed by 7-0 votes against SMC chairperson Yeshwant Madkar.
When contacted, Saglani said the BJP had failed in all respects to defeat the no-confidence motion and finally had to accept defeat.
Praveen Blagan said all attempts to keep their panel out of power had failed and the truth finally prevailed.
Meanwhile, in yet another twist, five BJP councillors, Anand Kanekar, Shubhada Sawaikar Rashmi Desai, Dayanand Boryekar and Brahmanand Desai have filed a no-confidence motion against Deputy Chairperson Ansira Khan from the Saglani group.
