Panaji & Mapusa towns get BJP chairpersons; Ponda & Quepem voted out
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 20 March 2012 23:05 IST
CCP Mayor Vaidehi Naik with her deputy Tony Rdrigues
With Bharatiya Janata Party-led government coming to power, Congress-ruled municipalities have started tumbling down.
It started with City Corporation of Panaji, followed by Mapusa and then Ponda municipal councils.
Quepem however dislodged chairman Manuel Colaco for revolting against the Congress.
BJP corporator Vaidehi Naik became the new mayor of CCP by joining hands with Tony Rodrigues, who rebelled against the camp of St Cruz MLA Babush Monseratte.
Babush had earlier agreed with chief minister Manohar Parrikar, the Panaji MLA, to make the BJP mayor with a deputy mayor from his (Babush) camp.
But Babush reportedly did not accept Parrikar’s proposal to make Tony the deputy mayor.
Babush camp had won the polls of 30-member CCP in last March with a wafer-thin majority of only 16. The BJP panel had won 12 while two were independents – Surendra Furtado and his wife Ruth.
Yatin Parekh, the CCP mayor who lost Assembly poll against Parrikar, had offered to step down as he was defeated as the Congress candidate while the BJP had literally swept the polls state-wide.
In a dramatic development today, Vaidehi was elected by 15-14 with Tony shifting on BJP side to become the deputy mayor while the Furtado couple also supported the change.
Carolina Po, another corporator and former mayor from Babush camp, was not present at the election, stating that she is abroad.
In Mapusa, chairperson Ashish Shirodkar, another henchman of Babush, had lost vote of confidence after he lost Assembly poll against now urban development minister Francis D’Souza.
After one councilor jumped the BJP side, Sudhir Kandolkar was today elected the new Mapusa chairperson unopposed.
In Ponda, defeated Congress candidate and former home minister Ravi Naik’s close aide Kishor Naik was voted out today as the chairperson by 7-5.
In Quepem, however, Congress MLA Babu Kavalekar voted out Manuel Colaco today by 7-0.
Colaco, a Congressman, had revolted in Assembly poll to contest against Kavalekar as the UGDP candidate.
