Team Goemkarponn
CANACONA: Two candidates on Thursday filed their nomination papers for the Poinguinim Zilla Panchayat constituency, including a prominent BJP dissident.
Former Poinguinim panch Diksha Dayanand Pagi and ex-Deputy Sarpanch Vipin Keshav Prabhugaonkar submitted their nominations as Independent candidates for the high-stakes seat.
With the BJP already declaring former Loliem-Polem sarpanch Ajay (Ajit) Lolienkar as its official candidate, Prabhugaonkar ended his 23-year association with the party before filing his papers before Returning Officer Vipul Naik Gaunkar. His wife, panch Surekha Prabhugaonkar, and mother, former panch Shilpa Prabhugaonkar, also resigned from the BJP.
Prabhugaonkar said the denial of the party ticket, despite his decades of work “from the formative years of the saffron brigade in the southernmost villages,” was a “direct insult” to committed karyakartas. He alleged the BJP had chosen a non-worker who “was a critic of the party until recently,” overlooking grassroots members who had built the organisation at the local level.
He appealed to like-minded workers to support his Independent candidature and “send a clear message that insults to dedicated karyakartas will no longer be tolerated.”
Meanwhile, sources said a section of Canacona BJP workers has questioned the silence of constituency leaders who had earlier threatened to quit if the ZP ticket went to an outsider. With the ticket now allotted to a non-member, insiders are watching to see whether those leaders follow through on their warnings.
