PANAJI
The stage is set for the finale of the panchayat elections with 186 local self-government bodies at the village level convening to elect sarpanchas and deputy sarpanchas on Monday morning.
The special panchayat meetings will decide the power equations at the village level across the State and although the elections were not fought on party lines, ground reports indicate that mainstream political parties and politicians -- ministers, MLAs and their rivals -- are maneuvering to establish surrogate control over the crucial grassroot politics in their respective assembly segments.
Already, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is claiming it will control an overwhelming majority of the panchayats.
Both Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and BJP State president, Sadanand Shet Tanavade had initially declared victory and claimed cadres and supporters will govern in as many as 140-150 panchayats.
Later, the party officially climbed down and put the figure at 128, where the party will hold sway.
The veracity or otherwise of the claims will however be proved after all the 186 panchayats meet and actually elect the sarpanchas and deputy sarpanchas on Monday as stipulated by an order of the Director of Panchayats Siddhi Halarnkar.
Elections to the 186 panchayats were held on August 10 and the results were declared on August 12 without any involvement of mainstream political parties.
However, as has been the practice for long, politicians and political parties do claim victories by showcasing allegiance of the winners using a surrogate, semi-formal methodology.
Ground reports meanwhile indicate that intense negotiations and attempts at horse-trading to cobble up majorities and capture power in individual panchayats is the order of the day in most panchayats.
Defections and switching of allegiances, so prevalent in Goa's politicians is also a feature among the grassroot level netas. This time though, in several panchayats people have voted in apolitical and independent minded individuals turning the fare tricky for a lot many of the Assembly constituency level satraps, including MLAs and ministers.
For instance, Opposition Leader, Michael Lobo, has already conceded his group is in no position to capture power in the prestigious and arguably richest panchayat of Calangute. There, his archrival Joseph Sequeira, currently in the BJP, has made a comeback.
Another interesting battle will be witnessed in the next richest panchayat of the North tourism belt of Bardez -- Anjuna-Caisua. Here, the long-serving sarpanch and local strongman Savio Nunes-Almeida was defeated by the youthful Laxmidas Chimulkar.
Chimulkar, said to be politically independent, has his own group of elected panchas and local observers say he is in pole position in a hung-house situation with Siolim MLA Delilah Lobo and her predecessor Dayanand Mandrekar fishing in troubled waters.
All in all, Monday will be packed with political excitement as sarpanchas and deputy sarpanchas get elected and mainstream politicians jostle to claim their loyalty across the State.
