Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress-turned-BJP leaders Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte have accused their former party of not having unity within itself due to which they failed to form the government. They have also justified their entry into BJP claiming that the party can provide solution for the mining issue and execute development in the State.
Former MLAs, who were inducted in BJP at a function held at New Delhi by BJP Minister Piyush Goyal, were formally welcomed in the State unit on Friday.
Congress has no unity; even at national level party is not very sound – Shirodkar
Stating that his decision to join BJP is not “wrong”, former senior congressmen Subhash Shirodkar on Friday accused Congress leaders of failing to have unity within.
“I left Congress party after 32 years and the only reason for my decision was that the party lacks unity. In last 18 months, being with Congress, I have realized that the party leaders have no consensus. This situation, did prevail in the past but at the end, there has to be some unanimity but that was missing in this group,” Shirodkar told media persons.
He further said that the party at the national level under leadership of Rahul Gandhi is also not very sound. “You see the so called mahagatabandhan. Akhilesh Yaadav left….Mayavati also left…there is no sign of Mamata Benerjee,” Shirodkar said.
“Only Rahul Gandhi and Chandrababu Naidu are left as part of this grand alliance. Sharad Pawar is also not very clear in his stand,” he added.
“Under such situation to win from 40 seats to 250 in the parliament is not an achievable thing,” he claimed adding ‘in such circumstances, my decision to join BJP was wise’.
Former Shiroda MLA said that his constituency, which was ruled by BJP for ten years, stood completely neglected and the work pace in last 18 months also not picked up. “I was not in any way ready to take any further chance. I wanted my constituency to grow and the only option was to be in power,” he justified his switch over.
He said that he was very much impressed the way infrastructure was taking shape in Goa in last five years. Nearly 15,000 crore works have been sanctioned by Centre, which never happened when UPA was ruling, he said. As far as Goa is concerned, he said that there are some burning issues like mining, which can be only solved by BJP.
“At current situation, congress party cannot restart mining. Only BJP and PM can give relief to 60,000 families dependent on this industry,” he said.
Despite being in opposition, my people got 103 jobs in govt sector – Sopte
Ex Congress MLA Dayanand Sopte on Friday said that despite being in opposition he managed to get 103 jobs in government sector for his people, while get sanction of Rs 32 crore developmental work for Mandrem constituency, in just 18 months.
“I have been into politics for 19 years and 12 years in BJP…my political career started with BJP…they taught me lot particularly with regards to organization,” Sopte said.
“Despite being in congress I had cordial relationship with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and BJP Ministers and MLAs,” he added.
“That is the reason that irrespective of the fact that I was in opposition, Government gave 103 jobs to my people and Rs 32 crore developmental works in 18 months period,” Sopte said.
Sopte said he managed to get his people jobs in KTC, GMC, Health services, police and security guards. “BJP had been offering me for long…but then I realized that the party who is helping me so much despite being in opposition, I should oblige to them and hence I took their offer …I took all my workers into confidence and decided to join BJP,” he justified.
“We are elected by people and hence your every decision in politics has to be for the benefit of the people,” he said responding to a question on what made him to join BJP.
Lashing out at his former party, Sopte said that despite emerging as single largest party Congress failed to form Government only because they could not finalize their leader. “Post that, we got three different opportunities to form government but even after that we failed. Only because we could not zeroed on to a leader…there were more than one leader,” he said.
