14 candidates in fray in 7 wards, four unopposed
PANAJI
Voting by ballot for the Taleigao panchayat is set to begin from 8 am on Sunday where there will be a direct one-to-one contest in seven of the eleven wards between candidates of the panel floated by Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate and the Opposition which has united.
In all, 11,988 voters are eligible to vote in the election which will be held across 17 polling booths in the village.
Four candidates belonging to the panel floated by Monserrate – Taleigao Progressive Development Front – have already got elected unopposed.
Interestingly, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which are already part of the INDIA bloc contesting the Lok Sabha election, have also roped in the local supporters of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) to be part of their United Taleigaonkars panel. Also, former BJP karyakatas who have moved away after the Monserrate’s entry into the saffron fold, are also backing the Opposition’s panel.
The most captivating tussle will be in Ward No. 2 where Monserrate’s long-time aide, Agnelo D’Cunha is in a straight fight with Domnic D’Cunha.
Many were surprised that the ward went into a D’Cunha v/s D’Cunha contest when in three other wards the Monserrate-backed panel managed to convince contestants to withdraw from the fray and get their contestant elected without a contest.
Sagar Bandekar was elected from ward XI when he’s was the only nomination filed when the deadline ended.
In the three other wards, the panel’s candidates – Ward 1 (OBC) Siddhi Kerkar, Ward 6 (Female) Estela D’Souza and Ward 11 Sydney Barretto – remained the sole contestants with candidates from the United Taleigaonkars panel withdrawing.
Counting of votes will be held on Monday at Bal Bhavan, Campal.
