MARGAO
Elections for the vacant post of Margao Municipal Chairperson has turned out a matter of prestige for the ruling BJP, with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant personally descending in the city to go into a huddle with the BJP-backed Councillors on Thursday evening.
In fact, the government rest house at Monte Hill saw intense political activity after the Chief Minister and senior party leaders, including ex-deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar, former MP Narendra Sawaikar and Damu Naik descended to hold parleys with party backed Councilors ahead of the election schemed on Friday. Cong-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat was not present, but son Yogiraj attended the meeting.
The Chief Minister went into a huddle separately with the original BJP-backed Councillors, who were elected in the 2021 Municipal polls and the Councillors, who had all won the polls on Cong-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat-backed Model Margao panel.
The two-hour long marathon meeting, sources said, was aimed at ironing differences between the original BJP-backed Councillors and the new comers to put up an united face at the election and to rally behind Kamat-backed candidate Damu Shirodkar for the post.
After coming out of the meeting, a smiling Chief Minister said the meeting ended on a positive note, even saying there was no difference of opinion amongst the original party Councillors and the new comers. “There’s no dispute at all. You will come to know the results tomorrow”, the Chief Minister remarked before heading to his waiting car.
Expressing happiness over the meeting, candidate Damu Shirodkar told the media after the meeting that the BJP-backed councillors have all decided to support his candidature at tomorrow’s election.
Another Councillor Mahesh Amonkar said he will vote for Damu because of the appeal made by the Chief Minister and because of the prestige attached to the election. “There is no doubt that we will all vote for the party candidate. We cannot afford to go against the diktat of the Chief Minister”, he said.
Councillor Sadanand Naik, who had filed his nomination paper for the post, told the media that he will withdraw his candidature as per the decision of the party leaders. “We will go as per the diktat of the party leaders. I will withdraw my candidature before the election on Friday’, he added.
