PANAJI
Speaking to The Goan, Congress CCP core committee member Rudresh Chodankar stated, “We have filed 11 nominations on Monday and 10 on Tuesday. Apart from the names disclosed previously, Deepali Naik will also feature on the panel for Ward 20, which is reserved for women.”
It was informed that the panel was looking to contest in over 25 seats for the upcoming civic polls.
Elaborating on the last minute change in plan to contest only in 21 CCP wards, Chodankar said, “Candidates who approached us for these nine wards were sort of ‘rejects’ from other panels. Considering this, we decided to settle on 21 good and strong candidates.”
Incidentally, Panaji Congress block president Sameer Raikar also conveyed to the party core committee his reluctance to contest.
Congress in-charge of the panel, Cumbarjua MLA Pandurang Madkaikar sought to point out that the Congress-backed panel entered CCP race quite late and by then, numerous good candidates had already assured their participation to other panels.
“In addition to this, we had chosen a few more candidates, who were prepared to file their nomination. But they backed off at the last minute as both opponent groups made them offers. UPF lost three to four candidates this way,” Madkaikar explained while adding that ‘there is no harm in fielding 21 good candidates’.
