MARGAO
The anxiously-awaited election for the Margao civic chief has turned out a damp squib with the BJP-led group all set to rule the municipality sans a fight, but not before the municipality witnessed unprecedented month-long political drama which saw the ouster of a chairperson in a week, yesterday’s friends turning out bitter enemies, re-alignment of political forces, City Fathers changing sides and cross-voting and culminating in the promulgation of an Ordinance doing away with secret voting.
The month-long battle saw resort politics entering the civic body. Religion also came into play when City Fathers were forced to swear on God and the sacred coconut after the cross-voting episode.
Call it a battle for prestige or otherwise, which saw political bigwigs such as Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Congress-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat leading from the front for the ruling side and Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai backing the opposition pack to keep the BJP at bay, election for the Margao Municipal Chairperson has indeed been unprecedented in the civic body’s recent history.
The corridors of the Margao municipality on Tuesday did not bear testimony to the political storm that hit the civic body over the last month, with only the BJP-backed group filing nomination papers for the vacant post and the opposition staying away from the contest post-Ordinance.
Indeed, sources in the know say this is perhaps the first time in the recent history of the Margao Municipal Council that the players were locked in a no holds barred battle, culminating in the promulgation of the Ordinance to check cross-voting in the ruling side.
Ordinance
The Goa Municipalities Act enacted by the Legislators during the era of Goa’s first Chief Minister Bhausaheb Bandodkar, which had withstood the test of time over the last 54 years, on the provision of secret voting, has been amended via the Ordinance route just before the Margao civic chief poll under the guise that the law is silent on secret voting. Once beaten, twice shy, so goes the saying, and the Ordinance mandating the election of municipal chairpersons by show of hands was promulgated on the eve of the MMC civic chief poll to check cross-voting by the ruling camp councillors.
Goa Forward vs BJP
The election for the Margao civic chief virtually turned into a Goa Forward Party versus BJP battle, as the two parties slogged it out in the city in the game of one-upmanship to wrest control over the civic body. The Goa Forward scored some brownie points after it handed out a shock defeat to the BJP when party-backed candidate Ganashyam Shirodkar won by 15-10 votes, largely due to cross-voting by the ruling side. The victory, however, turned out short-lived after the BJP got its act together and succeeded in voting Ganashyam out of office within a week.
Margao Civic Alliance is down and out
The election for the Margao civic chief finally saw the demise of the Margao Civic Alliance (MCA), a pact stitched by Digambar Kamat and Vijai Sardesai to keep the BJP at bay. The MCA had romped to victory by winning 17 seats in the 25-member civic body in the 2021 polls. The unfolding political developments, which saw the defection of Digambar and his group of councillors into the BJP, left the alliance in the dumps and the rise of the BJP in the city after a gap of 17 years.
BJP in the driver’s seat
The BJP has bounced back in the Margao Municipal Council after a gap of 17 years. The party was stranded in the civic body with only seven seats in the 2021 municipal polls. With Kamat embracing the BJP last month, the strength of the saffron party has overnight swelled to 16 in the 25-member body after the Margao MLA got all his seven councillors to embrace the ruling party ahead of the October 12 election for the civic chairperson.
Cross-voting, desertions order of the day
The BJP camp was hit by unprecedented cross-voting by its councillors, resulting in the defeat of the party-backed candidate. This is perhaps the first time in the recent MMC history that cross-voting came into play, paving the defeat of the group enjoying a majority.
Both the BJP and Goa Forward Party camps also witnessed desertions by the party-backed councillors. If BJP councillor Sunita Paradkar quit the party to align with the Goa Forward to support and elect Ganashyam Shirodkar for the coveted post, the BJP struck back days later after the party got four-time Goa Forward City Father Raju Naik to leave the regional outfit and embrace the saffron party.
Resort politics
Perhaps for the first in recent political history, resort politics came into play in the run-up to the Margao civic chief. The Goa Forward Party had ferried all its City Fathers to a Villa in North Goa before bringing them together to vote for Ganashyam Shirodkar in the election.
The BJP did not lag in the game of resort politics. The party also accommodated all its councillors to a starred resort in North Goa on the eve of the no-trust motion against the ousted Chairperson Ganashyam Shirodkar. The party again took its flock to a resort at Betalbatim on the eve of the election for the Margao civic body scheduled on October 12.
