PANJIM: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday launched a campaign to Clean Goa’s politics and came down heavily on the 10 rebel Congress MLAs, who sold their voters out to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Not sparing the BJP, AAP attacked the ruling party for indulging in horse-trading and betraying their voters, who voted against these MLAs in 2017 Assembly elections.
AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chadha launched a website LetsCleanGoaPolitics.org, where Goans can log on and take a pledge to vote out the MLAs who hopped from Congress to BJP and to boycott Congress and BJP.
Pointing to the switch over of 10 of the 15 Congress MLAs to BJP in July 2019, Chadha said that Goans have now realised that voting for Congress is the same as voting for the BJP. And Goans have realised that voting for BJP is the same as voting for Congress. They have destroyed the legacy of stalwart politicians such as former Chief Minister Bhausaheb Bandodkar, former Leader of the Opposition Dr Jack Sequeira and former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
“The BJP by stealing democracy and cheating the Constitution has insulted the land of Bhausaheb Bandodkar, Jack Sequeira and Manohar Parrikar,” Chadha said, urging Goans to log on to the website and take a pledge to defeat MLAs, who hopped from Congress to BJP and to boycott Congress and BJP at least in the upcoming elections.
Recalling the 2017 Assembly election results, Chadha said that something unprecedented happened in the history of Goa. “Congress emerged as single largest party with 17 seats and BJP got 13. But the Congress that was given the mandate did not form the government and instead BJP manipulated and bought MLAs to form the government. These MLAs said they wanted to align with BJP under Parrikar’s vision. This was a complete betrayal of Goa’s mandate. But these corrupt parties didn’t stop there. These betrayers wanted more. After the unfortunate death of Parrikar, the BJP bought 10 Congress MLAs to create its own selected puppet Chief Minister,” he added.
“This was a betrayal of the Goan vote. This was a betrayal of Congress voters, BJP voters and of the cadre of each of the parties who worked hard and got these people elected,” Chadha said.
“Faith of ordinary Goans is not for sale and vote of Goans is not a tradable commodity. Goans will not forgive and forget this betrayal,” he said, adding, “Today Goans have taken three pledges. They will never vote for the 13 MLAs who betrayed them and sold their votes, they will boycott the Congress and they will boycott the BJP.”
The BJP national spokesperson said that voting for Congress is equal to voting for BJP and urged the people to ensure that both these parties will not be voted at least in 2022 polls.
AAP Goa convenor Rahul Mhambre said that Goans will not stand for this betrayal. Goa doesn’t want BJP and doesn’t want Congress. This time, BJP will not vote for BJP or Congress. This time, Goa doesn’t want to be betrayed again, he said.
“We are going to start a campaign to stand with every Goan who knows they have been betrayed. Through this website, Goans will take a pledge not to vote for the BJP and Congress this time,” Mhambre added.
