the goan I network
MARGAO
Even before King Momo could descend on the commercial capital to usher in the three-day carnival festivities on Sunday, a political carnival of sorts unfolded in the city, with rival political groups outsmarting each other ahead of the festival.
While Chairman of the Margao Carnival Committee 2020 Arthur D’Silva held a media briefing on Wednesday noon to unveil the festivities, the Goa Forward-backed ruling group of Margao Municipal councilors boycotted the briefing. By evening, all the Goa Forward-backed councilors shared the dais with party president Vijai Sardesai , who announced his four-day festivities at the MMC parking lot near the old market after the government scuttled his plans to hold “Back to the Streets” Carnival programme on the Ravindra Bhavan road.
That’s not all. While a visibly agitated Arthur slammed the political leadership for the absence of the ruling Goa Forward city fathers at the media briefing, even saying that certain political leaders are treating their elected representatives in a dictatorial manner, former MMC chairperson and Goa Forward leader Babita Prabhudesai made no mince of the fact that she and the Goa Forward councilors had boycotted the official Carnival media briefing to protest against the change in the Carnival parade route from Ravindra Bhavan to the Holy Spirit Church-MMC square by the government.
Babita and the Goa Forward Councilors further made it categorically clear that the ruling
Goa Forward city fathers will boycott the Sunday Carnival float parade organised by the civic body through the Margao Carnival Committee headed by Arthur.
The Fatorda MLA did not lag behind. Sardesai not only took on the government and the bureaucracy, but Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar for the government’s decision to shift the parade route to Margao and to deny him the permission to hold the Back to the Streets Carnival festivities.
