CORTALIM
“Some residents of Cansaulim village wanted me to contest, but I told them that I was not interested to contest the panchayat elections.”
Asked if his aunt and late Matanhy Saldanha’s sister, Ifa Saldanha, would contest the panchayat elections, Simoes replied in the positive.
“Yes, Ifa will contest from Baga ward in Cansaulim village and she is the people’s candidate,” Simoes said.
Incidentally, Ifa also comes from the education field, retiring from St Xavier’s College, Mapusa, like her brother late Matanhy Saldanha, who was teaching in Don Bosco High School at Panaji, while his spouse and Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha worked with the Diocesan School of Education and retired school headmistress.
However, Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha could not be contacted on whether she would support or field any panel in the forthcoming panchayat elections.
This time, Cortalim constituency will consist of five panchayats, Cortalim, Sancoale, Velsao-Pale-Issorcim, Cansaulim -Arossim-Cuelim and the new Quelossim Panchayat, which has been bifurcated from
Cortalim village.
Meanwhile, Simoes said he was was firm in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and added that recent corruption allegations against Aam Aadmi Party national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was only meant to defame their leader.
