Panaji, Nov 4 (TOI): With the assembly elections not too far away, the state unit of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is attempting to revive its presence in municipalities where panels supported by it were defeated in the recently-concluded civic elections. The saffron party was able to secure wins in just 6 of the 11 municipal councils that went to polls. It now aims at making amends before 2017 in the hope of securing more than 21 seats in the state legislative assembly.

Taking serious note of defeats in civic bodies of Margao, Cuncolim, Canacona, Quepem and Valpoi, the party summoned its MLAs from the losing municipalities, along with the respective mandal presidents, losing candidates and election committee members to ascertain reasons for the losses.

Speaking to TOI, state unit BJP president, Vinay Tendulkar, said, "We have discussed what went wrong in the recent municipal elections; whether the party erred in its selection of candidates or in taking any important decisions. We have also outlined some corrective measures to be taken."

The municipal elections saw the saffron party make a clean sweep in the municipalities of Bicholim, Pernem, Mapusa, Curchorem, Sanguem and Mormugao. It could not, however, secure wins in the Canacona and Cuncolim civic bodies despite the fact that both areas are represented by its MLAs, Ramesh Tawadkar and Rajan Naik, respectively.

The BJP has initiated the process of electing its next mandal samiti, district samiti and state president. Sources said the mandal samiti would be chosen by the first week of December, followed by the district samiti. The new state unit president would be appointed the end of the same month, they added.

It is likely that Tendulkar, the incumbent state unit president, will win a second tenure in office.

Sources said that former Fatorda MLA, Damodar Naik alias Damu, who is also a frontrunner for the post, is fast losing credibility due to his panel's humiliating defeat in the municipal elections at Margao.