PANAJI
The political muscle of Revenue Minister, Atanasio (Babush) Moserrate was discernible in his pocket borough of Taleigao as the panel he floated for the April 28 panchayat poll already threw up winners in four wards even before the first ballot was cast.
Candidates whose nominations passed the test of scrutiny by the Returning Officer on Friday, withdrew from the fray on Saturday thus letting the candidates of the Babush-supported panel in these wards to be elected unopposed. One of these had already won unopposed on Friday itself after scrutiny.
Babush panel candidates from ward I (Siddhi Kerkar), ward VI (Estella D'souza), ward X (Sagar Bandekar) and ward XI (Sydney Barreto) were elected unopposed.
There will therefore now be direct one-to-one contests in the other seven wards with the most interesting battle in the general ward II between Agnelo Da Cunha, the long-time political aide of Monserrate and Domingos Da Cunha. Voting will be held on April 28 using ballot papers.
On Friday, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Cecille Rodrigues had alleged intimidation of contestants by the Monserrate camp. Rodrigues had got one of the candidates to file a related complaint before the panchayat election watchdog the State Elections Commission (SEC) but the complainant who passed scrutiny as a contestant for the reserved for OBCs ward I, Mayur Uskaikar, ended up quitting the contest on Saturday.
