the goan I network
PANAJI
Zilla Panchayat elections will be held in Goa on March 15, according to a notification issued by the State government on Thursday.
The electorate in rural Goa (panchayat areas only) will elect 25 members each in North Goa and South Goa to the second tier body of the Panchayati Raj system of self governance.
A detailed schedule for filing nominations and other formalities is expected to be issued later.
Earlier, the State Election Commission headed by SK Srivastava had designated executive magistrates and sub-divisional officers as returning officers for the zilla panchayat constituencies in their respective jurisdictions.
Nomination papers will have to be delivered by aspiring candidates in the offices of these returning officers as per the schedule to be set out by the SEC.
The elections will be permitted to be fought on political party lines for the second consecutive time.
Meanwhile, newly appointed State president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sadanand Shet Tanavade has already announced that winning the ZP polls would be his first priority. At a convention of party workers the day he took charge, Tanavade also acknowledged the challenge of facing the polls in the absence of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
The Opposition however is yet to spell out its plans for the ZP polls although the Congress has said it will contest the rural elections.
The principal Opposition party however seemed in no mood to tie up with other Opposition parties when its State president Girish Chodankar seemingly spurned the overtures of Goa Forward Party president Vijai Sardesai.
In a taunt to Sardesai, who had stated earlier on Thursday that his party would be open to stitch alliances with the Congress for the ZP polls, Chodankar said, his party is willing to form alliances with anyone who is trustworthy and has not betrayed the people’s mandate to bring the communal BJP to power.
