All the five candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including both of those contesting Lok Sabha election are getting a positive response from the voters, even the minority community, said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in the presence of Party’s Goa Unit President Vinay Tendulkar here on Monday.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Sawant said that elections are held to elect a government for the country and minority community voters are aware of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the nation ahead through his inclusive policies.
“The minority community voters are educated, they read national newspapers, watch national television and they are aware of the development undertaken by Modi-led government. They are with the BJP,” he said.
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Mr. Sawant said that both the candidates – Shripad Naik (North Goa) and Narendra Sawaikar (South Goa) are getting a good response from the people during their campaigning.
“Lok Sabha elections are for the country. Do not limit these elections to a certain caste or religion,” Mr. Sawant appealed to the Goan voters.
He said that the issues related to Goa like resumption of the iron ore mining, tourism development, further improvement in infrastructure and inclusion of Dhanagar community in the list of Scheduled Tribes have been suggested to be included in party’s national manifesto for Lok Sabha election.
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When asked about the party’s coalition partners, he said that all the partners, including Goa Forward Party and Independents, were campaigning for BJP candidates in their respective assembly constituencies.
Criticising the Congress, Mr. Sawant pointed out that they had to “import” a leader from South Goa to contest for the North Goa seat due to a dearth of the candidates. His reference was to Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar who hails from Margao in south Goa but is contesting the election from North Goa.
He also said that the Congress candidate in the South, Francisco Sardinha has a track record of not utilizing the fund under MPLAD.
“While Mr. Sawaikar has utilised 100% of the fund under MPLAD scheme, Mr. Sardinha had to surrender 70 percent of his funds when he was the South Goa MP,” Mr. Sawant alleged.
However, the Chief Minister avoided responding to the allegations levelled by recently sacked former Deputy Chief Minister Sudin Dhavalikar of Maharashtrawadi Goamntak Party(MGP) which state that the MLA and his wife were being harrased by central government agencies.
When asked to respond to the charge levelled by Mr. Dhavalikar on March 29, Mr. Sawant quipped, “I do not now, ask MGP”.
Soon after he was sacked from the Cabinet by Mr. Sawant, Mr. Dhavalikar had said that he was being threatened by officials from the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and the National Investigation Agency.
"We have received a lot of threats over the last three days from ED , IT and from the NIA too saying that my wife will be arrested," Mr. Dhavalikar had said.
Mr. Dhavlikar’s wife, Jyoti is closely associated with Sanatan Sanstha, a Hindu rightwing outfit based in Ramnathi, Ponda which comes under Mr. Dhavalikar’s constituency of Marcaim.