PANAJI
The haphazard reservation and delimitation of wards has muddied political equations across the thirty wards of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and confined key players in the capital's political landscape, including Panaji MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, limited to drawing rooms recasting their electoral strategies.
Monserrate had announced his panel of 30 candidates last Monday even before the State Election Commission notified the schedule but in less than a week has already changed his candidate in one of the three Ribandar wards.
According to sources in the Monserrate camp, there is a possibility of few more changes as several ward-level satraps from across the city are facing a backlash over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tag attached to the panel with the Taleigao strongman switching political allegiance to the ruling party last year.
The anti-Monserrate camp in the capital has drawn into it politicos from multiple parties including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and also some disgruntled in the saffron party upset with Monserrate's upstart domination in the saffron camp.
Insisting that the polls are not being conducted on party lines, these anti-Monserrate and anti-ruling dispensation politicos have styled their group as a "Citizen's panel" and have called it 'We Ponjekars' with former mayor Surendra Furtado as its convenor.
'We Ponjekars' is apparently keeping cards close to the chest suspecting the Monserrate camp to resort to intimidation and lobbying using official machinery to pressurise candidates to back off.
It is therefore yet to announce the names of their candidates and is expected to do so on Monday.
Monserrate who had floated panels and captured power in the capital's civic body for three consecutive elections since 2006, meanwhile, faces another dilemma this time -- it's the first time he is fighting the CCP polls from the saffron camp.
It is also a situation confronting some of his ward-level satraps, outgoing councillors and ex-councillors who he has nominated to contest the March 20 polls.
Also, several outgoing councillors from the BJP kariyakatha eco-system in Panaji groomed over the decades by Late Manohar Parrikar have got edged out either by the delimitation and reservation scheme he is suspected to have influenced or simply denied a ticket from the official panel by Monserrate.
Former Mayor Vaidehi Naik, former Panaji BJP mandal chief Pundalik Raut Desai, State BJP Mahila president, Sheetal Naik, Menino Da Cruz and Rekha Khande are among the prominent ruling party faces from the capital who have been left in the cold with Monserrate's real-politik.
The three Panaji-Taleigao leaders from the saffron stable -- Utpal Parrikar, ex-MLA Siddharth Kuncolienkar and party spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik -- have already come out publicly with their displeasure over the Monserrate-led BJP panel announced for the March 20 polls.
The public critique and expression of displeasure from Parrikar, Kuncolienkar and Naik has been loud but guarded in the form of statements and bytes to the media or posts from personal social media handles.
Utpal Parrikar for instance commented about the trait of promoting immediate kin while in office with a tweet: "So the culture of promoting immediate kin while currently holding public office has crept into Panaji."
The tweet posted by the older son of Late Manohar Parrikar immediately after the BJP panel was announced was an obvious reference to Monserrate nominating his tainted son Rohit as a candidate from Ward No 3.
