MARGAO
With a month to go for the panchayat election, all eyes are now focused on Salcete’s political bigwigs and the newcomers, on how they would go about the ensuing election with a host of candidates bracing up to throw their hat in the electoral ring for the 30 panchayat bodies dotting the taluka.
Veteran heavyweight Benaulim MLA
Churchill Alemao has kicked off his campaign by going to the public with a plea to back and support candidates fielded by his panel. His counterparts, including Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro, Velim MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco and newcomers Clafacio Dias (Cuncolim) and Wilfred D’Sa (Nuvem), however, seem to be treading a cautious path, apparently waiting for the dust to settle down before taking a call on the question of openly backing candidates in the election.
Making matters worse for the Salcete ruling politicos is the bitter truth that a number of their supporters and workers, in some wards, around 4-5 candidates, appear to be gearing up to throw their hat in the ring. Sources said that expectations of the grass root supporters from the political bigwigs in
terms of support, both moral and financial, appears high since it’s just three months since they had all backed them in the assembly election. That the bigwigs find themselves in a predicament is understandable since they can ill afford to allow their supporters to cross swords against each other and give the rival camp an advantage due to division of votes.
That the bigwigs would love to have their men ruling the panchayat bodies is an open secret. And, they have the option of either floating their own panel of candidates or allow their common supporters to slog it out on the battleground before cobbling up the numbers to form the panchayat bodies.
Navelim MLA, Luizinho Faleiro and his Velim counterpart, Filipe Neri Rodrigues have been candid in admitting that many of their supporters have been bracing to throw their
hat in the electoral ring. The duo seems to have favoured a consensus amongst the supporters before they intervene at the grass roots. Filipe Neri, in particular, was wary of the fact that the opposition would gain at the panchayat level if a consensus eluded the ruling aspirants, resulting in a division of votes.
MLAs like Reginaldo Lourenco, however, do not appear keen in dabbling in local panchayat politics. Saying that some of his supporters have advised
him not to involve himself in the coming poll, Reginaldo underlined the need to leave the choice of candidates to the people at the grass-roots.
