Ponda civic poll sets stage for BJP-MGP showdown

PONDA: Even as candidates affiliated to all political parties are in the fray for the Ponda municipal council (PMC) election on Friday, the main contest would be between the BJP-backed panel and 'Rising Ponda' led by MGP's Ketan Bhatikar.
Though Bhatikar has fielded 12 candidates, with most of them MGP functionaries, neither minister and MGP MLA Ramkrishna 'Sudin' Dhavalikar nor MGP president Pandurang 'Deepak' Dhavalikar are involved in the election campaign.
Sudin said that as the council elections are not fought on party lines, he has abstained despite many MGP functionaries fighting the polls.
At the last election held on April 29, 2018, the MGP-backed panel had bagged seven seats, followed by the BJP-backed panel's five seats, while three were backed by Congress, however, two from the MGP-backed panel and three from the Congress panel, including then Congress MLA Ravi Naik's son Ritesh, joined BJP, making the BJP group the largest with 10 councillors.
However, BJP now has nine councillors as one member rejoined Congress.
As BJP looks to retain control of the council, Bhatikar may try to a make comeback after he lost the Ponda assembly election by a small margin.
In 2018, Naik was pitted against BJP and the MGP-backed panels, but now as he is in BJP, Congress has only fielded a few candidates.
With two candidates elected unopposed, 45 are in fray for the election on May 5, and 14,271 voters will elect 13 councillors. While Ponda comprises 16,305 voters, 2,034 voters from two wards are excluded as their members were declared elected unopposed.