VASCO: The Mormugao BJP Mandal has claimed that all the BJP workers and supporters from the constituency are intact and only a few people with selfish motives had moved away only to play political gimmick before the polls. 

Addressing a press conference in Vasco on Monday, Mormugao BJP Mandal president Sanjay Satardekar and MMC vice chairperson Shashikant Parab claimed that Mormugao BJP is intact and is fully supporting BJP candidate Milind Naik. 

They were reacting to news reports that over 1,000 BJP supporters had decided to revolt against BJP Mormugao candidate Milind Naik and had pledged support to the Mormugao Congress party candidate Sankalp Amonkar.  

It may be recalled that the above decision was taken at a public meeting held at Headland Sada by the rebel BJP members on Sunday.

“The claims of over 1000 BJP workers withdrawing their support to Naik are false as only few BJP workers who were never with the party since 2012, have revolted against the party. However, they have not officially left the BJP but have been playing dirty politics for selfish motives,” said Satardekar.

He further alleged that “There are few people who are involved in illegal business and as Naik has stopped such activities, they are upset and are now speaking against him.” 

He said, “There is a procedure followed by BJP to renew party membership once in three years, but according to my knowledge none of these people, who claim to have revolted against the Mormugao BJP candidate, are party members nor they have renewed their membership, so how can they be members of BJP,”.

“Few councillors, who have now decided to support rival party candidates, actually ditched the BJP, as they got elected under the party flag as councillors and now have made a U-turn with some hidden agenda,” Parab alleged.