Armed policemen guard the strong room in the South Goa district Collectorate, which has housed the ballot boxes from Salcete. Captured by : Santosh Mirajkar
PANAJI
Some 200 aspirants for a seat in the two 25-member district panchayat bodies will know their fate on Monday when poll officials take up for counting the ballots cast on Saturday in the truncated Zilla Panchayat elections at nine counting centers in the State.
On Saturday, 4.5 lakh of the 7.92 lakh eligible rural electorate, had cast their votes at polling booths across Goa.
Interestingly, this is the first electoral contest being held in Goa since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic which has upturned and disrupted every aspect of life. In fact, the poll process had already begun and only voting was left to be carried out when the national lockdown due to the pandemic forced its postponement on March 22.
Politicians and political parties will be keenly watching and analysing the results and the various numbers the ZP poll counting on Monday will throw up to pick up signs of patterns and voter behaviour amidst the Covid-19 distress.
The election was fought on party lines and the political leadership are expected to break down the results to strategize their approach for the crucial State assembly elections slated for early 2022.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded 43 candidates and the Opposition Congress has put up 38 candidates.
The new kid on the block -- the Aam Aadmi Party -- which has recently launched a renewed foray to gain a foothold in the State's political arena, has 20 candidates in the fray and is supporting 4 other independents. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) has 17 of its candidates vying.
This zilla panchayat poll will also be a crucial test for many State level politicians, particularly the legislators who switched from the Congress to the ruling BJP last year. Several of them particularly in Salcete have refused to put up candidates on the official BJP symbol and have instead fielded supporters as Independents.
Goa has 50 Zilla Panchayat seats, twenty-five each in North Goa and South Goa. However, polling was held for only 48 as in one seat -- Sancoale jn South Goa -- a candidate was declared elected unopposed and in Navelim it was countermanded due to the death of a contestant.
This ZP poll was originally slated to be held on March 22. However with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring a 'Janata Curfew' on that day as a prelude to the subsequent national lockdown to fight the pandemic, the State government was forced to cancel polling and keep it on hold until it re-scheduled it for now.
