BJP loses Ponda & Sankhli civic polls, still desperate to form councils

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has received a severe blow in the municipal polls of Ponda and Sankhli. In spite of that, the party is trying hard to form its own councils in both the municipalities. It may not succeed in Sankhli.

But in Ponda, the BJP is trying to take advantage of the fact that the jubilant MGP is falling short of one councillor to form its council. 

In Ponda, the coalition partners – the BJP and the MGP – were on loggerheads in the municipal election and had formed separate panels to fight each other.

Finally, in the 15-member municipality, Sudin Dhawalikar supported MGP’s panel won 7 seats against 5 last time, while the BJP was pushed down to only 5 from 9 seats last time.

In spite of Ravi Naik being the Congress MLA now, the Congress panel could win only 3 seats. It had only 1 seat last time.

PWD Minister Sudin Dhawalikar’s panel thus needs only one councillor to form its own council.

He appears to have decided to make peace with his senior partner in the state government and form a BJP-MGP council.

But BJP wants their own Chairman. And outgoing vice chairperson Shantaram Kolvekar, who is the BJP man, does not deny it. Sudin however is still not committing it.

In Sankhli however the picture looks completely one-sided. The increase of seats from 11 to 13 became advantage Dharmesh.

Outgoing Chairperson Dharmesh Saglani’s panel won 8 out of total 13 seats. And two independents supported by him have also won. That makes 10.

Sankhli MLA Pramod Sawant’s BJP panel however could win only 3 seats this time. It had 5 councillors last time.

 In spite of this one-sided verdict, Sankhli MLA Pramod Sawant is bent upon forming BJP’s council in Sankhli. Dharmesh has thrown an open challenge to him to do it. 

[Ground Inputs: Krishna Naik from Ponda and Mahesh Govekar from Sankhli]