India, Jan. 5 -- If the impotency that characterises the presence of key institutions of rural governance is anything to go by, it is abundantly clear that political considerations have prevailed over any notion of local self-governance in the state today.

But the sort of seriousness during the Zilla Panchayat elections of 2025 was quite in contrast to the insignificance attached to these polls in the years gone by in Goa.

Suddenly, the whole process had taken on a political dimension of its own. The ZP polls, originally intended to be a neutral affair as always, had become intertwined with political interests, power struggles, and public contestation.

It was as if the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had a point to prove! The entire part...