VASCO
Former Cortalim sarpanch Senia Pereira on Wednesday and former dy sarpanch Raymond De Sa hit out at each other amid allegations of money being distributed on the eve of elections.Residents in Cortalim have their eyes set on the results in the ward where Pereira and De Sa are locked in a straight fight.
Speaking to reporters, Pereira alleged that she had caught De Sa red-handed while distributing money to voters on Tuesday night.
“I went with the police and also took the flying squad with me and we caught De Sa moving around freely after 8 pm which is against the rules. After he saw all of us, he rushed to a panch member’s house and his vehicle left from the site.”
“I want to know what was De Sa doing. This is the only reason why he is being elected and he has been doing this all the time,” said Pereira.
De Sa, however, refuted the allegations and said Pereira was only attempting to malign his image ahead of elections.
“This was a pre-planned attempt to malign my image ahead of elections by the opposition candidate, Senia Pereira. The police were present and they later even called the flying squad who found nothing with me.”
“I had gone to the place because my supporters told me that Senia was distributing money and I want to ask her what she was doing there? She is already frustrated and accepted her defeat before the results.”
Win or lose, will support all candidates: Cortalim MLA
VASCO: Cortalim MLA Anton Vas on Wednesday said he was willing to support all candidates, immaterial of political affiliation and whether they win or lose the panchayat elections.
Speaking to reporters, Vas said he had not interfered in the panchayat elections.
"It is but natural that only one candidate will win and the others will lose but those people must not lose hope and continue to work for the people because they also have a great future.”
“I have seen it all and I have known that people who work for others will get their reward. I went on to become a panch, two-term Sarpanch, two-term ZP and finally a MLA.”
“I also want to tell all candidates that I will always be there to support them for whatever work that they want me to do and continue to support them as the MLA, immaterial of whether they win or lose and immaterial of their political affiliation. We will all work together for the development of Cortalim constituency," said Vas.
Supporters of Morjim candidate celebrate even before counting
PERNEM: Supporters of one contestant, Surekha Shetgaonkar, from Ward 2 in Morjim began to celebrate soon after voting ended on Wednesday.
They began to burst crackers at Shree Dev Dadoba Devasthan, claiming that their leader is already a winner.
“As 690 voters cast their ballots from this ward, my supporters assumed that 90% of these votes were in my support and thus, they celebrated our victory,” admitted Shetgaonkar.
Nayani Shetgaonkar, vice president of BJP’s Womens’ Cell, said going by the enthusiasm of voters from Ward 2, they were expecting Shetgaonkar to get at least 600 votes.
“That’s the reason we are celebrating today though the counting is two days later on August 12,” said Nayani Shetgaonkar.
