PANAJI: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday announced the second list of nine candidates to contest the Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections scheduled on March 22.
Pomburpa panchayat member Ruby Halarnkar, wife of ZP member Gokuldas Halarnkar, who quit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined Congress has been nominated for Aldona ZP constituency, which is reserved for women candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.
Similarly, former footballer Anthony Lino Fernandes popularly know as Tony has been fielded for St Lawrence (Agacaim) ZP constituency. Tony's father late Sebastiao and Tony's wife Bernadinha had served as sarpanch of Agacaim village. Also, former Guirdolim sarpanch and current panchayat member Sonia Fernandes and social worker Reshma Velip who joined Congress party last week have been given Congress tickets to contest respectively from Guirdolim ZP constituency (reserved for women) and Poinguinim (reserved for women belonging to ST communities).
Old Goa panchayat member Vishal Volvoikar has been fielded for Corlim ZP seat where he is likely to battle against his panchayat colleague Sidhesh Naik, son of Minister for AYUSH Shripad Naik.
The list of the candidates are as follows: Aldona (OBC women)- Ruby Gokuldas Halarnkar; Anjuna (women)- Sangeeta Lingudkar; Corlim (OBC)- Vishal Volvoikar; St Lawrence- Anthony Lino Fernandes (Tony); Mayem- Prasad Chodankar; Guirdolim (women)- Sonia Fernandes; Sanvordem- Shyam Bhandari; Poinguinim (ST women)- Reshma Samir Velip and Cortalim (ST)- Lupinho Xavier.