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BJP loses control of municipal council in heart of Goa CM’s constituency
In a blow to Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant, the BJP-backed chairperson of the Sankhali municipal council, a constituency that the chief minister represents in the state assembly, was ousted in a no-confidence motion on Friday
In a blow to Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant, the BJP-backed chairperson of the Sankhali municipal council, a constituency that the chief minister represents in the state assembly, was ousted in a no-confidence motion on Friday.
“The chief minister is behind all these tactics to ensure that they retain the chair of the council. They want to send a message that if you stand against them, they will do everything possible to harass you. What message are they sending to those who want to enter politics next,” Dharmesh Saglani, a Congressman who leads the opposition group said.
Sitting chairperson Yeshwant Madkar and his group of councillors remained absent during the meeting which was called to vote on the no-confidence motion resulting in a victory for the opposition. Congress won the vote 7-0 in the 13-member council.
The victory caps a flurry of developments in which the state machinery attempted to stymie the holding of the vote. It first repeatedly postponed the date of the meeting, filed a disqualification petition against an opposition councillor in a bid to get him disqualified before the vote and when he obtained a stay from the High Court, it filed a disqualification petition against another councillor who also got the stay from the HC. Another councillor was prevented from voting by issuing an arrest warrant but that attempt too failed as the councillor got anticipatory bail.
North Goa’s Sanquelim town forms a crucial part of the constituency that CM Sawant represents. He is a two-term MLA from here. The BJP held a narrow majority in the council but all that changed when Damodar Ghadi, a councillor belonging to the BJP camp, passed away in November last year. Elections were held on March 20 to fill up the vacant seat in which the candidate backed by Sawant lost.
However, anticipating a victory, two days before voting was held, the opposition councillors moved a no-confidence motion against incumbent Yashwant Madkar. However, rather than quickly calling for a meeting of the council to decide the motion, the Director of Municipal Administration called for the meeting to be held only on April 30 - six weeks after the motion was tabled forcing the opposition councillors to approach the Bombay High Court at Goa.
“The removal of an elected office bearer on the loss of confidence is an essential feature of democracy. Such a feature cannot be defeated by the Director by simply delaying the holding of a meeting to even consider such a motion,” the High Court said while directing that the meeting be held on April 16.
Faced with the possibility of losing control of the council, a disqualification petition against one of the opposition councillors, Rajesh Sawal, that was kept for hearing before the minister of urban development, Milind Naik, on April 28 was moved forward to April 14. Sawal promptly approached the High Court alleging that “from the sequence of events, it is apparent that the entire objective behind such a preponement is to disqualify [him] or disable [him] from taking part in the meeting to consider the motion of no confidence.”
The High Court granted a “stay on further proceedings for disqualification of the petitioner.”
While attempts to disqualify Sawal failed, late on Thursday evening, the urban development minister issued another councillor, Raya Parsekar, to be present for a hearing at a time that would clash with the meeting for the motion of no confidence. The councillor too approached the High Court and obtained a stay.
Unable to prove their majority or ensure that the opposition candidates would not win the motion, the BJP backed-councillors abstained from attending the meeting allowing the opposition to win the motion 7-0.
“After the High Court rescued democracy in Goa, [a] humiliating 7-0 defeat of the BJP backed Sanquelim Municipal Council Chairperson Yeshwant Madkar is a clear signal that the end of BJP government is near. Congratulations to all seven councillors of Sanquelim who remained strong and united,” Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat tweeted.
“The BJP government is all out to finish the democracy in the country and has already adopted dictatorial governance. Dr. Pramod Sawant is completely shaken with his lost control of Sankhali Municipality which falls in his own constituency,” state Congress president Girish Chodankar said.
“This is not the last we will hear of it. The state will continue to file cases against us which we will have to face,” Saglani said.
Naik remained unreachable for a comment despite repeated attempts to get in touch with him.
State BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade sought to play down the implications of the defeat.
“These things keep happening as a consequence of local politics. As a party president it would not be appropriate for me to offer my comments,” Tanavade said.
Independent political observer Advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho said that Goa is fortunate that the courts intervened to allow the no-confidence motion to go ahead.
“It was because of the intervention of the High Court that is sensitive to the principles of democracy that the principle of democracy was upheld. We should not take this for granted. All parties try to take advantage of the grey areas in the laws to their advantage and no party is interested in streamlining the processes,” Coutinho said.
