Lotus confident of blooming in both ZPs, counting of votes today

Panaji: Counting of votes of the zilla panchayat elections for the 50 constituencies in North Goa and South Goa held on Wednesday will begin at 8am on Friday at 14 centres across the state; six in North Goa and eight in South Goa.
Since the ZP polls were conducted through secret ballot and not through electronic voting machines, the manual counting of votes has been distributed to many centres across the state.
The BJP-MGP-Goa Vikas party alliance which had a seat sharing agreement in Goa’s first-ever ZP elections held on party lines, hopes to win majorities in both districts and to form the Zilla Panchayat bodies in North Goa and South Goa.
Speaking to TOI, BJP state unit president Vinay Tendulkar said, “We are 100% sure that we will form both the zilla panchayats in North Goa and South Goa.”
Asked how many seats the alliance will win in either district, Tendulkar said he did not want to predict the number of seats, but, that he was sure that the BJP alliance would form the ZP bodies in both districts.
Tendulkar deflected the question whether he considered this a semi-final to the assembly elections of 2017. “These are ZP elections. We fielded our workers and we got a very good response. The people are solidly behind us. There is no doubt about this,” he said.
Asked if the BJP was of the opinion that the ZP bodies should get more powers and funds, Tendulkar agreed completely. “That is the reason why ZP elections were held on party lines. Congress has not responded; they should have contested these elections. Our party has already conveyed to the government that ZP bodies must get more funds and powers,” Tendulkar said.
Critics have dismissed the BJP reasoning, accusing the party of being greedy for power and of holding the elections on party lines only to strengthen its stranglehold over the state.
Congress has accused the BJP government of conducting the delimitation and reservations of the ZP constituencies without consulting stakeholders and in a manner that will benefit BJP candidates.
Congress general secretary Sunil Kawthankar cited examples galore. Parcem and Poroscodem removed from Mandrem and merged into Dhargalim ZP constituency; parts of Nuvem put in Benaulim, Bali merged into Canacona and Socorro merged into Saligao. The St Lawrence constituency held by Congressman Antonio Silveira was made into a ST constituency disabling him from contesting.
In February itself, seven outgoing ZP members in South Goa went to the press accusing the BJP government of doing the delimitation with “an aim to lessen Catholic domination in some constituencies of Salcete.”
These included Wilfred D’Sa, Maria Rebello, Daya Pagi, Cipru Cardoz, Maria Noronha, Kushali Velip and former South Goa ZP chairperson Clafacio Dias.