Margao: With the next assembly elections a year away, the October 25 municipality polls has turned into a battle ground for political parties to gauge their strength in the state's commercial capital. Though the civic polls are not fought on party lines, extensive campaigning is under way by political leaders who have floated their panels for the elections to the Margao Municipal Council (MMC).

Realizing that they were on a sticky wicket to fight the might of the BJP in Margao, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai forged an alliance of the two panels floated by them. Kamat's Model Margao joined hands with Sardesai's Fatorda Forward to form a united front christened as Margao Civic Alliance. The move is aimed at usurping control of the MMC by the two anti-BJP forcesCongress and independent Fatorda MLA. The Congress-independent alliance will now take the saffron party's panel Madgao Development Front head on in the elections, though the role of the civil society in effecting an outcome would be crucial, going by the extensive campaign launched by Rajeev Gomes who spearheaded a recent agitation to expose corruption in the MMC. Obviously wary over its not so bright prospects in the municipality polls, the Congress has claimed that is has not floated any official panel or candidate in the civic polls.

Grassroot political watchers are of the view that though the common man is disenchanted with the performance of its elected representatives and the affairs of the MMC, the unprecedented involvement of the Margao legislator in the city's civic polls has stirred excitement among the voters. For Kamat, who has been embroiled in the Louis Berger bribery scam and recently got reprieve after being granted anticipatory bail by the court, the municipality polls is likely to serve as a litmus test to determine his political ratings as well as the measure of acceptability and popularity among his voters. Kamat along with his better half, Asha, is seen going door-to-door and addressing corner meetings in all the wards in support of his candidates.

The political equations in the MMC remained slippery during its last five-year term, thereby resulting in the chairperson being toppled at regular intervals through no-confidence motions. Following the election of the council in October 2010, all 20 councillors of the MMC were affiliated to Congress and the MMC had no opposition panel in the real sense of the term for the first 16 months. Equations changed dramatically following the 2012 assembly polls. Once the BJP came to power in the state, most of the councillors aligned with the ruling party though most shied away from shifting their allegiance to the saffron party.

For the BJP, a victory in the civic polls would bolster its chances to take Kamat head on in the assembly elections and wrest the seat from the Congress. BJP lost the Margao assembly seat after Kamat defected from the party in 2005 and won the seat on a Congress ticket. The BJP is yet to regain the seat despite all-out efforts in all succeeding elections so far. With Kamat's image suffering a dent following the Louis Berger bribery scandal, the BJP is looking at deriving political mileage over the issue.

BJP, on the other hand, is facing a crisis of rebellion in Margao. Many a candidate, perceived to be BJP supporters, are contesting against the official BJP-supported panel's candidate after they were rejected support by the party for their nominations.

Nevertheless, the civil society group has been actively campaigning in the city urging people to "vote for a change" in the civic body by electing new faces with a clean image and reject candidates seeking new term in office.

With both the BJP and the Congress fielding old faces in several wards, and the civic society's campaign receiving good response from the public, the outcome of the elections in many wards could be anybody's guess.