Goa: Panchayat elections may be further postponed, likely to be held after monsoon?

PANAJI: Speaking to media persons a week earlier, minister for panchayats, Mauvin Godinho had stated that the panchayat elections are likely to be postponed from the tentative date – June 4 – owing to delimitation and reservation processes that are pending completion, the Times of India had reported.

Godinho said the polls may be postponed by a week, but sources claim otherwise.

“It is just not practically possible to hold the Panchayat elections in Goa during the monsoon,” an official connected to the election process told this reporter.

Now, sources claim that the Panchayat polls in Goa may be held only after the monsoon in either September or October, as it will not be practically possible to hold in the elections in the month of June, July and August in pouring rain, with the weatherman predicting a normal to heavy monsoon, this season.

189 panchayats in State will go to polls and even though the Panchayat elections will not be on party lines, both BJP and Congress MLAs will field their affiliated panels in the coastal state. In addition, social groups and forums are likely to put up their own teams and panels in the various Panchayat zones.