BJP confident of gaining control over Sanquelim civic body, retaining Ponda

PANAJI: Voting for the election to Sanquelim and Ponda municipal councils concluded on Friday evening. Both municipalities altogether registered a voter turnout of 78.8%.
The Promod Sawant camp is hopeful of finally controlling the lone municipal council in the chief minister’s constituency.
Counting of votes will start on Sunday at 8am at the meeting hall of the government complex at Ponda for the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) and at the Multipurpose Hall at Sanquelim for the Sanquelim Municipal Council (SMC).
There were 43 candidates in fray in the PMC election. Candidates from ward 7 and ward 13 were elected unopposed. For SMC, 31 candidates went up against each other. Candidates from ward 5 and ward 8 were elected unopposed.
Sanquelim witnessed an increase of 2.5% in voter turnout while there has been a 2% decrease in Ponda compared to the 2018 municipal election.
SMC recorded a voting percentage of 87.5% while Ponda recorded 74.6% when voting concluded. A political observer said that with the high stakes at the Sanquelim municipal election and huge turnout, silent voters will hold the key.
In Sanquelim, ‘Together for Sanquelim’ panel raised the issue of government machinery pressuring voters to vote for the BJP-backed panel but the BJP-backed panel outrightly denied such things.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant told TOI that the BJP-supported candidates in both Ponda and Sanquelim would win the election. “The people of both municipalities have supported city-level development and preferred BJP supported candidates in the municipal polls,” he said.
“The opposition panel is frustrated and making allegations. Nobody has been pressursed in the municipal election,” Sawant said.
Dharmesh Saglani, who heads ‘Together for Sanquelim’ against Sawant, said there will be a tough fight, “but our panel will form the council”.
Agriculture minister Ravi Naik, both of whose sons are contesting the Ponda municipal polls, said people of Ponda are smart and have stood behind BJP candidates. “Keeping in mind that the state and Centre will support the Ponda municipality financially, people of Ponda have voted for BJP-backed candidates,” he said.
The municipal elections will be a litmus test for both Sawant and Naik. In the 2022 assembly elections, Sawant won by 666 votes while Naik, contesting on a BJP ticket from Ponda, had won by just 77 votes against Ketan Bhatikar (MGP). The Sanquelim municipal council is presently controlled by the Congress-backed Saglani panel, whereas Ponda is controlled by BJP.