PANAJI
Nature appears to have struck a balance on International Women’s Day with women comprising 50 per cent of the newly-elected Corporation of City of Panaji.
In all 38 women candidates had contested CCP polls and of these 15 have managed a win. While 10 of these women candidates belong to Antanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate-backed Panjim City Corporation Development Front, five hail from Panaji First backed by BJP.
Average age of the women corporators in the new Corporation is around 45 years with the youngest being Sheetal Naik (33) from ward 5 and Pascoela Mascarenhas (65) from ward 17.
Of the 15 women corprators, 10 have been elected from wards reserved for women. However, three other women coporators have been elected from general wards. These include Ruth Furtado from ward 9, Vaidehi Naik from ward 12 and Diksha Mainkar from ward 24. In addition to these, two other women corporators, Sheetal Naik and Asmita Kerkar, have been elected from ward 5 and ward 22 respectively, which were reserved for OBC.
Victory margin was the highest in case of Ruth Furtado who won by 314 votes beating the other two candidates. It was the lowest in ward 22 where Asmita Kerkar of Babush panel beat Maya Talkar of BJP panel by six votes.
It may also be noted that BJP’s Sheetal Naik beat Babush’s strong candidate Bento Lorena by margin of 54 in ward 5.
