In the midst of Assembly session in Goa and festive season of Shigmotsav, the Election Commission has declared bypoll in Ponda to fill the vacant post due to demise of MLA Ravi Naik. The Congress and BJP are contesting the same with their candidates in the place. Congress has declared their candidate Dr Ketan Bhatikar who was in MGP and an independent candidate once but has now joined Congress party. The Congress party already had Rajesh Verenkar as candidate but has given the ticket to Dr Ketan. BJP on other hand has two candidates it could field, Ritesh Naik, son of late Ravi Naik and Vishwanath Dalvi, an active BJP leader. The Ponda constituency was once Congress seat with Ravi Naik a six-time MLA. In the recent SIR exercise it is learnt that around 3,800 names have been deleted from voters' list. The bypoll will give an opportunity to the elected MLA to serve for six to seven months as there are general elections in 2027. It is a wait-and-watch situation in Ponda as bypoll will decide the people's candidate to fill the vacant post.
