The election to Goa Assembly will be held by February 2022. There are various aspirants for the post of Panaji MLA. Panaji being the capital city is important to all the political parties. Winning Panaji is a matter of prestige. The unsolved issues in the capital city are many -- the priority ones being that of garbage management plant and sewage from casinos being dumped in the STP at Tonca.
Now, we have a long time patron in charge of Panaji vying for the Panaji seat under BJP banner, but the court case of the stoning of the Panaji police station is like a sword over his head. The hard-core BJP party workers want Utpal Parrikar to be the Panaji candidate. Time only will tell what will happen.
Interestingly, the Congress is fighting hard to win Panaji which they lost when Babush won on the Congress ticket and defected to BJP. Among the other parties, the Aam Aadmi Party is also working hard to win the seat. It is not known yet if the TMC and MGP union will also field a candidate.
We have already seen the BJP has no interest in removing the casinos. It has been in power for more than 10 years and the casinos are well anchored. Let’s wait and watch if any of the parties will care enough to solve the monumental issues Panaji faces.
