MARGAO
Ahead of the counting of votes on Monday, candidates and political parties went in a huddle with supporters in the drawing boards, assessing and reassessing their election prospects as their fate lay sealed in the ballot boxes on Saturday.
The Congress top brass went into a huddle with the contesting candidates from both the North and South Goa Zilla Panchayat seats at the South Goa district Congress office on Sunday noon. Party leaders, including GPCC Chief Girish Chodankar, CLP leader Digambar Kamat, both the district presidents Joe Dias and Vijai Bike and vice-presidents Altinho Gomes and MK Sheikh had an interaction with the candidates after Saturday’s polling.
Similarly, political heavyweights, including NCP MLA Churchill Alemao were closeted with his close aides to assess the situation. Congress leader Joaquim Alemao was in touch with the party workers from Guirdolim ZP constituency, to assess the position of the party candidate in view of the polling pattern in Saturday’s election.
Indications emanating from the Congress camp showed that the party leaders were of the opinion that not all is lost in the Zilla Panchayat election. In fact, GPCC Chief Girish Chodankar said despite the hurdles created by the government and the State Election Commission to prevent the voters from coming out to cast their votes, voters volunteered to exercise their franchise against the government
“After the interactions with the party candidates, we are pretty confident that the party flag will fly high at both the North and South Goa Zilla panchayats”, Girish said.
The GPCC Chief pointed out that the Congress went all out to expose the government on corruption as well as government’s failure to address issues during COVID and otherwise. He also said the party did not compromise with the political parties and groups, which were at one time aligned with the BJP.
