the goan I network
PANAJI
A looming walkover in favour of the Monserrate couple - Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate and Panaji MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate - who have a political stranglehold on Taleigao was averted in the upcoming March 22 Zilla Panchayat elections with Cecille Rodrigues throwing her hat in the ring.
Rodrigues said letting the seat go uncontested and captured unopposed was the main reason why she entered the fray for the March 22 zilla panchayat elections.
“I have been working on the ground for almost a year now, regarding potholes, unpainted speed breakers and garbage. BJP would have got elected unopposed in Taleigao, so my friends approached me to stand and I am contesting as an independent candidate,” Rodrigues said at a press conference she addressed in Taleigao on Wednesday.
A candidate in Taleigao of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the 2017 Assembly elections Rodrigues said the AAP and the Congress are fully behind her candidature and also released her manifesto.
“Taleigao deserves better. At the gram sabha level, we have the power to voice out. Elected representatives have to listen to us which is not happening now. A lot of people don’t attend,” Rodrigues said, adding that Goa is dying today because of lack of participation by the common man.
Meanwhile, AAP convenor Elvis Gomes in a statement said the party was backing Rodrigues and two other independents - Abdul Kadir Shaikh (Davorlim) and Taumaturgo Rodrigues (Velim).
The Kejriwal-led party has fielded 21 candidates in both the districts who are contesting on the party’s ‘broom’ symbol. Seven of these are women, including Aishwarya Fernandes in Colva, who at 23 years of age is the youngest of all the 204 candidates.
