the goan I network
MARGAO
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to contest in at least five seats in Bardez in the Zilla Panchayat elections to be held on March 22.
AAP has set its eyes on Socorro, Sirsaim, Aldona, Calangute and Siolim from among the nine seats that are up for grabs in Bardez taluka.
Besides Bardez, AAP also hopes to field candidates in Tiswadi and Sattari talukas in North Goa.
“The last-minute reservation announced by the government has slightly upset our calculations but we are going ahead and contesting in at least five seats in Bardez,” said Pradeep Padgaonkar, General Secretary of AAP.
It may be recalled AAP convenor Elvis Gomes had slammed the State Election Commission for dragging its feet to announce the reservations and the election date for the ZP polls.
Padgaonkar said the party has already gone through the motions of identifying the candidates and will soon make the names public.
In fact, in some constituencies AAP banners have already come up at several places.
The nine ZP constituencies in Bardez are Siolim, Colvale, Aldona, Sirsaim, Anjuna, Calangute, Socorro, Reis-Magos and Penha de France.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced names for three more candidates for the constituencies of Socorro, Reis-Magos and Penha-de-France.
Two days ago, the party had declared the names of candidates for Siolim, Aldona, Anjuna and Calangute constituencies.
The party is yet to announce the candidates for Sirsaim and Colvale seats from Tivim, where it faces a rebellion of sorts from the former MLA Kiran Kandolkar.
Kandolkar on Friday had demanded the party ticket for his wife, Kavita Kandolkar, in Colvale.
