CANACONA
A straight fight is a common feature among the first four wards of Canacona Municipal Council (CMC), with some heavyweights pitted against each other in the ward elections.
WARD 1 (NAGARCEM)
A stiff battle is on the cards between outgoing councillor Hemant Naikgaunkar and two-term councillor and ex-chairperson Ranganath Naikgaunkar in Ward 1, which has 822 voters.
While Hemant claims to have done justice as councillor by ushering in development, Ranganath insists his rival failed to complete many projects he had got approved when his wife served as councillor prior to Hemant.
“I stayed out of the contest the last time and we gave him (Hemant) an opportunity to complete projects already approved during my wife’s tenure, but he failed to do so. Now, people want me back in power to complete these pending projects,” said Ranganath.
However, Hemant claims to have completed some key works and says other works got stuck due to the lockdown and the pandemic.
“I have an ambitious plan to beautify the Nagarcem-Chaudi stretch, besides a new connecting road from the upcoming Ravindra Bhavan to Ponsulem via the beautified lake. This will ease traffic congestion on the narrow Ponsulem road to Chaudi,” said Hemant.
WARD 2 (CHAUDI)
A prolonged battle has been going on between two candidates to lay claim for the prestigious commercial hub of Canacona municipality, which has 862 voters.
New contestant and social worker Levino Gracias, who is supported by three-term councillor and ex-chairperson Hemant Gracias, is pitted against ex-CMC chairperson Ramakant Naikgaunkar, who is contesting for the first time in Chaudi, after his Kindlem ward was reserved for OBC women.
Incidentally, both candidates had begun their groundwork since the last two years. Gracias is banking heavily on ground support and endorsements by former councillors from the ward.
“Moreover, no one wants an outsider and non-resident of the ward. People are openly supporting my vision to develop the area,” says Gracias.
However, Ramakant is no pushover and has made
significant inroads in his adopted ward.
WARD 3 (DELEM-MASTIMOLL)
This ward, which has 773 voters, has been newly created after being carved out from a portion of Mastimoll ward. The contest will be between Supriya Dessai and Jayshree Shet, wife of the outgoing Mastimoll councillor Kishore Shet.
While Jayshree believes that the work done by her husband will help her win the seat, Supriya is confident of ousting one member of Shet couple contesting the elections.
WARD 4
(MASTIMOLL)
The rivalry between former councillors Kishore Shet and Pandurang (Dhiraj) Naikgaunkar will be on display yet again at Mastimoll, which has 802 voters.
Both had contested the last ward election and Shet had emerged victorious by a slim margin after a third candidate played spoilsport.
This time though, Kishore faces the challenge of wooing voters, as many of his loyal voters have been moved into the new Ward 3, where his wife is a candidate.
Dhiraj, however, claims his vote bank has remained intact following the bifurcation of the ward and is also banking on newly added voters from the ITI side.
