CANACONA
Within a gap of 24 hours, party colleagues Mahadev Dessai and Janardhan Bhandari have turned rival candidates in Canacona after Dessai was declared the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate after he left the Congress on Friday on being denied the party ticket.
Dessai, who along with 45 of the 55 Block Committee members had joined the TMC on Friday afternoon, was included in the TMC’s second list for the assembly elections, which was declared on Saturday evening.
Incidentally, Uday Gaonkar, a tribal leader from Gaondongrim and son of former minister Vasu Paik Gaonkar and another tribal leader and former Gaondongrim sarpanch Ashok Velip were two other leaders from Canacona who were also recently inducted into the TMC. Both leaders were also reportedly expecting the TMC ticket to contest the assembly election from Canacona.
Dessai was, however, given preference after causing a vertical split within the Canacona Congress block and taking a majority of block members with him into the TMC. Besides, Dessai had been on a door-to-door campaign for the past six months.
Dessai will now take on GPCC General Secretary and Canacona candidate Janardhan Bhandari and is expected to launch his campaign on the TMC banner from Sunday itself.
