Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar on Thursday said that those ugly incidents like poll malpractices are raising its ugly head in the tiny State and did not rule out the possibility of threatening voters and booth capturing during ensuing municipal polls.
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Speaking to media at the Congress office, here, Chodankar said, “Incidents like poll rigging and booth capturing were common in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and the way things are happening in Goa, I fear we will overtake them.”
Chodankar alleged that the ruling BJP is desperate to win municipal elections and tried to manipulate them. In Quepem, one candidate was stopped from filing his nomination papers and was pressurised/threatened to withdraw it while, a woman went missing few hours before filing her nomination papers. If this goes on then BJP workers may even take ballot papers and boxes to their homes, he said.
Chodankar also condemned the incident involving a personal assistant and supporters of a Cabinet Minister abusing Chicalim parish priest Fr Bolmax Pereira and Chicalim panch-elect Stefanie Lucas. BJP workers were so desperate to take photograph of unopposed panchayat member as their own. But Fr Bolmax and others stopped this goondaism.
“We can not expect free and fair elections because Goa State Election Commissioner is not appointed as per statutory provisions and is not acting as an independent body. Being Secretary to Government, he was frequently reporting to the Ministers,” Chodankar said.
Reacting to recent raids in Goa by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Chodankar alleged that drugs had become a family business of BJP. In the past ketamine drugs were seized from a shed owned by a BJP functionary Vassudev Parab at Pissurlem but till date no action is taken against him.
He dared Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and BJP State president Sadanand Shet Tanavade to make public the government jobs created and given in the last four months post Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections.
“Our Goenkars have not forgotten that BJP leadership during Zilla panchayat elections had promised to give 10,000 jobs. Now almost four months have passed to this promise and hence the Chief Minister and BJP president should tell people how many jobs are given or created. If there was a backlog of jobs, then the government should show it and the number of jobs given,” he said.
