PANAJI: Panjim City Corporation Development Front, the panel backed by Taleigao bigwig Babush Monserrate wrested the Corporation of City of Panaji polls by winning 17 of 30 seats, while the panel backed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- Panaji First -- managed to win 13.
Of the 21 wards in Panaji, BJP won in 11, while Babush romped home in 10. Of the 9 wards in Taleigao, Babush won 7 and BJP 2, beating two of Babush's stronger candidates “ Dayanand Karapurkar and Bento Lorena “ by margins of 65 and 54 votes respectively.
Though Babush panel managed to secure a clear majority to rule the corporation in the capital city, it was a major disappointment for him as BJP managed to make inroads into his bastion in Taleigao by winning two out of the nine seats. In four wards, Babush’s candidates won by a margin of less than 50 votes while in three wards “ 8, 13 and 22 “ his candidates won by very low margins of 18, 1 and 6 votes respectively.
As for Panaji First, they won in 13 wards, just one more than the previous election. While five of their sitting corporators “ Sheetal Naik (ward 5), Vaidehi Naik (12), Shekhar Degvekar (15), Diksha Mainkar (24) and Shubham Chodankar (27) - managed to retain their seats, Bharati Heble and Maya Talkar, however, were not lucky enough. But the major disappointment to the Panaji First was the defeat of their candidate Vishnu Naik by just a single vote.
Interestingly, 11 of the sitting corporators retained their seats, of which five apiece are backed by the BJP and Babush-backed panels, while one is a co-opted member of the CCP.
Two couples “ Ruth and Surendra Furtado and Arati and Rupesh Halarnkar won in their respective wards of 9 and 10 and 29 and 30. Of the 30 elected members, 50 per cent are women.
Interestingly, this is the first time that Panaji First panel has won 13 seats without Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar getting into the campaigning mode. The campaign was entirely led by Panaji MLA Sidharth Kuncalienkar.
Congress backed a 20-member panel but none from it managed to win a single seat.
