Margao MLA left with tough job to ensure representation to both Margao and Fatorda
Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar will be completing 15 months in office on January 12.
MARGAO
When Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar chaired the Council’s special meeting earlier this week to decide on the Carnival and Shigmo float parade, a City Father was overheard asking whether the special meeting would be the civic chief’s last meeting of his tenure.
Indeed, as the Margao civic chief completes 15 months in office on January 12, the corridors of the Margao Municipal building and outside is abuzz with a host of questions on the future of the MMC Chairperson, considered the Man Friday of Cong-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat.
With just a little over two years to go for curtains to come down on the current term of the civic body coupled with the fact that more than two-three ruling City Fathers are eyeing the hot seat, questions are indeed asked whether the Margao MLA would go about using his juggling skills to keep the flock together; whether he would back Damu’s continuance for a further period at least till the coming Lok Sabha polls and temporarily diffuse claims for the post from his ruling councillors?
The Margao MLA, who controls the civic body, will have to do a fine balancing act to give representation to both Margao and Fatorda in the scheme of things given that the Chairperson Damu Shirodkar and vice-Chairperson Deepali Sawal are both hailing from Margao.
Well, one could hear voices loud and clear in the corridors of the Municipal building seeking to know whether the civic chief would step down from after completing 15 months in office on January 12. City Fathers from the ruling as well as opposition camps seemed to have no idea how politics would unfold in the civic body post January 12, when Damu completes 15 months in office.
The Damu Shirodkar camp seems to be banking on the Margao MLA on the future of the civic chief. When Benaulim MLA Venzy Veigas called for the replacement of the Margao Municipal Chairperson over a month ago over garbage dumping in Benaulim village, the MMC chief insisted that his future lies in the hands of the Margao MLA.
Having offered to quit office a couple of months ago over differences with the Margao MLA, Damu seemed ready for any eventuality. The camp, however, is quick to point out that no fixed tenure was decided or agreed upon by the ruling group for the Chairperson’s post when Damu assumed office on October 12, 2022.
Sources say the 15-month tenure for the Chairperson was fixed when Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai and the Margao MLA Digambar Kamat had an alliance in the civic body in the 2021 civic polls, wherein Sardesai’s nominee and former Chairperson Lyndon Pereira had stepped down from office after completing 15 months in office.
With the Vijai-Digambar alliance down and out and the BJP having formed the council on its own after Kamat quit the Congress to return back to the BJP after 17 years, ruling party sources in private say the question of fixed tenure for the Chairperson does not arise.
On this count, the ruling party sources may not be technically wrong in insisting that no tenure was fixed for the august post, but observers say the ruling group cannot afford to ignore the aspirations of ruling councillors to occupy the coveted seat, more so with just two years left for the current term to end.
Against this backdrop, political observers say the Margao MLA will have to fall back on his juggling skills to keep dissensions at bay and at the same time ensure he retains his stranglehold over the civic body.
Observers say Kamat may not find it difficult to get both the Chairperson and vice-Chairperson step down from office. In fact, vice-Chairperson, Deepali Sawal has already submitted her resignation to the Margao MLA around 15 months ago. What may pre-occupy the mind of the Margao MLA and the BJP leaders is how to address the claims of more than one ruling Councillor for the hot seat.
