Goa, April 9 -- For weeks, Ponda simmered. Banners went up, canvassers fanned out across the constituency. Postal ballots were dispatched - 171 of them already cast and now counted for nothing. Security deployments were finalised, polling booths staffed, logistics locked in. The con stituency, still raw from the death of its MLA and former Chief Minister Ravi Naik on October 15 last year, was finally going to have its voice back - or so it believed. Then, less than 24 hours before voting was to begin, the Bombay High Court at Goa pulled the plug. In a terse order on Tuesday, a di vision bench of Justice Valmiki Men ezes and Justice Amit S Jamsandekar cancelled the April 9 by-election - striking down the Election Com mission of India's not...