Panaji celebrates Women’s Day by electing 50% women corporators
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 08 March 2016 16:46 IST
The capital of Goa today celebrated International Women’s Day in a ‘political manner’, by electing 50% women to the City Corporation of Panaji, including five from the general category.
The 30-member CCP already has 10 seats reserved for women, including three OBC women.
But the Panaji voter elected five more women by rejecting the men candidates and posing more trust in the female gender to run the state capital.
And comparatively, this time only five women, whose husbands or brothers were out of the race, got their wives or sisters elected as the corporators.
The CCP has also elected two couples – Surendra and Ruth Furtado of Babush Monseratte panel and Rupesh and Arati Halarnkar of the BJP panel.
The five women, who got elected from the general category are as follows:
BJP: Former Mayor Vaidehi Naik (third time), Diksha Mainkar (third time) and Sheetal Naik (second time).
BABUSH: Ruth Furtado (third time) and Asmita Kerkar (first time).
Though in reserved category, Margardia Coelho e Fernandes and Pascoela Mascarenhas are two more former corporators, who got elected once again, both from Babush panel.
Five women were elected from both the camps, because the wards were made reserved and the male politicians’ wives or sister contested.
Kabir Pinto Makhija got his sister Soraya elected from Babush’s panel.
The wives of politicians elected from women wards are: Reshma Nagesh Karishetty and Lata Yatin Parekh (both Babush panel) as well as Arati Rupesh Halarnkar and Rekha Suraj Kande (both BJP panel).
The elected women corporators from reserved wards, whose husbands are not political leaders, are Shubhada Shirgaonkar and Manisha Manerkar (both Babush panel).
Interestingly, former corporator Shweta Lotalikar’s husband Rahul was elected this time from Babush panel.
Kudos to the women of Panaji. Hope the balance will help maintaining the balance of power struggle and like women have proved earlier, they can be great homemakers, businesswomen, leaders, this time the women corporators take lead in showing the way a capital city can be developed by grit and will.