MONDAY, MAY 13, 2024
Team Herald
FARMAGUDI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday sounded the poll bugle in the State in an apparent bid to win both the Lok Sabha seats in the general elections scheduled next year.
Addressing a huge public rally at Farmagudi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to the voters of Goa to ensure BJP’s victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking strongly, Shah said, “The BJP thinks that the smaller the State, the bigger the responsibility of the Centre to develop and make it prosperous. I have seen this mood in Odisha, Telangana, and Karnataka. After the victory in the North-Eastern States, I want to tell Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that the BJP will win with an absolute majority.”
However, the Home Minister, who congratulated Karnataka for making the Goa government give consent to the diversion of waters of the Mhadei from Goa to Karnataka, setting off a sea of condemnation in Goa, did not speak a word on the issue in the meeting.
As Shah gave his speech, the loyal VIP Goan ministerial foot soldiers sat in the flanks on stage suitably attired, and in their uniformed headgear, latching on to every word of his and clapping. But since they were all smiling and happy, it appeared that perhaps they felt that a positive statement on Mhadei in Goa’s interests was around the corner.
Urging the electorate of South Goa, Shah said, “This time we don’t want half-half in Goa. I want to request voters across the State to ensure the victory of the BJP candidates in both constituencies and to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I have come here only for the South Goa seat.”
Shah claimed that the Centre has resolved the mining issue and that the mining activity will resume in the State within a year.
In his address, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said, “With the arrival of Amit Shah in Goa, we have kick-started the campaign for upcoming Lok Sabha elections.”
Speaking on the reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities, Sawant said, “It was the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP government with the help of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who provided political reservation to STs. The BJP will give reservation to the ST communities in the next Assembly elections.”
He mocked the opposition MLAs for remaining mum on development.
Union Minister of State for Shipping Shripad Naik said, “With the joining of Congress MLAs, the BJP is strengthened across the State and the BJP will wrest the South Goa seat from the Congress by a huge margin and achieve the party’s target of winning 403 seats in the 2024 polls.”
BJP State President Sadanand Shed Tanavade said, “We have been winning North Goa since 1999. Today we have decided that we will wrest the South Goa seat which the party had lost to Congress in the 2019 polls.”
Shah’s public rally was a part of the party’s outreach with a focus on 160 Lok Sabha seats including the South Goa constituency.
BJP general secretary Adv Narendra Sawaikar said that now in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls due next year, the BJP has decided to hold public meetings in 160 Lok Sabha constituencies where the party narrowly lost in the last elections or has never won.
In 2019, Adv Sawaikar lost the election to Francisco Sardinha of Congress by 9,755 votes.
Earlier on his arrival, Shah held a meeting with the BJP MLAs and office-bearers and discussed organisational matters.
After the meeting, he visited a temple at Nagueshi in Ponda taluka and left for New Delhi the same evening.
--
Mhadei didn’t quite ‘flow’ in the Home Minister’s speech
None of the 20-odd BJP leaders raised the issue either at the rally
FARMAGUDI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not make a single reference to the contentious Mhadei river diversion issue at the public meeting in Farmagudi on Sunday.
As Goa braces for the diversion of its lifeline - River Mhadei - none of the 20-odd BJP leaders mentioned the Mhadei issue either in their speeches at the rally, which was attended by people across the State.
The Opposition MLAs had urged the State BJP leaders to seek clarification from Shah over the Mhadei River diversion after his “controversial” statement at a public meeting in Belagavi wherein had stated that the Centre has resolved the long pending dispute between Goa and Karnataka and allowed the diversion of Mhadei in consultation with the Goa government.
However, BJP leaders on Sunday denied that they lost an opportunity to raise the Mhadei issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to the State.
Shah’s colleague in the Council of Ministers and the North Goa MP Shripad Naik said, “He (Union Home Minister Amit Shah) only decides about the subject on which, he wants to talk. We cannot force him to talk. The Mhadei matter is in Supreme Court and we are confident that the top court will give its verdict in our favour.”
“Everybody spoke to Amit Shah ji on different issues during our interaction with him. The Mhadei issue is in Supreme Court and the government is fighting our case,” said BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade.
“You can’t say that we have lost an opportunity. We have already discussed it (Mhadei) and have raised the issue. Last time also we discussed it with him (Amit Shah) and the government is also concerned about the issue and trying its best at all levels,” BJP General Secretary and former MP Adv Narendra Sawaikar stated.
Meanwhile, several Congress leaders and workers were detained by police a few hours before Shah’s public rally at Farmagudi.
However, Youth Congress and NSUI activists along with some party leaders reached the Ponda bus stand, about four kilometres away from the meeting venue and shouted slogans “Amchi Mhadei, Amkam Zai, Amchi Avai, Amkam Zai, Amit Shah Tujem Utor Zai”. Soon a police force reached the spot, but the undeterred protestors continued with their sloganeering.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Amit Patkar and others, who were detained at Corlim while heading to Farmagudi, stated that they were only trying to show black flags protesting the sinister designs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Mhadei river, to win Karnataka Assembly polls.
Patkar said that they only wanted clarification from Shah and BJP leaders over the Mhadei issue since the union home minister during a rally at Belagavi had said that the Centre had resolved the long pending dispute between the two neighbouring States over Mhadei and allowed the river diversion to satisfy the thirst of farmers of many districts in Karnataka.
All the detainees were released after the public meeting ended.
