ZP election: Cong-turned BJP MLAs have their way

SOIRU VELIP | NT

Panaji: Nine out of the ten MLAs, who switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Congress party in July 2019 have managed to get their supporters nominated as candidates for the forthcoming Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections.

Except for Cuncolim MLA Clafasio Dias, all the other Congress-turned BJP legislators have ‘compelled’ the saffron party to nominate their own supporters, who joined BJP along with the MLAs.

Deputy Chief Minister and Quepem MLA Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar’s strong supporters and sitting ZP members Khushali Velip and Shanu Velip have been nominated as BJP candidates for Barcem and Khola constituencies, respectively.

In Taleigao, Panaji MLA Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate and Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate, who is the Revenue Minister in the Pramod Sawant-led government, have got Anjali Naik as the candidate of their choice.

A similar situation can be seen in the St Cruz ZP constituency where the BJP has nominated Savanna Araujo, a supporter of the local MLA Antonio ‘Tony’ Fernandes and Panaji MLA Monseratte. For St Lawrence in St Andre, represented by Francisco Silveira, the party has given ticket to former Congressman and sitting ZP member Dhaku Madkaikar, who joined BJP recently. 

Colvale and Sirsaim, which come under the Thivim assembly constituency, represented by Congress-turned BJP legislator Nilkanth Halarnkar, have got candidates of the MLA’s choice.

Shobhana Shabu Velip, a supporter of Deputy Speaker Isidore Fernandes, is the BJP candidate for Poinguinim ZP constituency.

In Salcete, BJP has nominated Sanjana Sanjay Velip for Guirdolim constituency, which is virtually a setback to Cuncolim MLA Clafasio Dias. Velip is a BJP loyalist and the local MLA could not convince the party to nominate his supporter as candidate.

In Nuvem and Velim, BJP has been ‘forced’ by MLA Wilfred D’sa and Fisheries Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues, respectively to support independent candidates nominated by them. In Velim, Anthony Rodrigues is the independent candidate with outside support from Velim MLA Rodrigues, while for the Nuvem ZP constituency, BJP had no choice other than supporting the independent candidate fielded by the local BJP legislator D’sa.

It is quite clear that despite having a strong organisation, BJP could not nominate its cadre in the assembly constituencies of nine Congress-turned BJP MLAs. The saffron party could manage to nominate its cadre, a female, as the candidate only for the Guirdolim seat.

A BJP functionary admitted that in order to win these ZP seats the party had no option other than fielding candidates suggested by the newly-admitted MLAs, as they have a strong base in their respective assembly constituencies.