TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Independent Navelim MLA Avertano Furtado on Monday came out openly in support of BJP candidate Narendra Sawaikar, calling upon his supporters in Navelim to back the latter in the April 12 poll, saying the BJP is not communal.
“I am in the BJP government since the last two years and I have not seen any communalism in the BJP. Our government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 10 crore for the Old Goa exposition. I can say with confidence that the BJP is not communal”, Avertano said, while addressing a huge crowd at a meeting of BJP workers held at Blasco Executive, Navelim, on Monday evening.
He came down heavily on Trinamool Congress candidate, Churchill Alemao, urging his supporters to ensure that Churchill forfeits his deposit this time around. Saying that the Congress has no workers even to man an election booth, Avertano urged the people to unitedly work towards Sawaikar’s success. He reminded the gathering that he was instrumental in carrying out development in Navelim through the assistance and cooperation of the Chief Minister.
In his address, Chief Minster Manohar Parrikar appealed to the people not to believe in the false propaganda that BJP and Narendra Modi are communal. “The opposition is only fooling the minorities by instilling in them fear of the BJP. But people now know that Parrikar is not communal”, he said, adding that his government has not discriminated against any community in the implementation of schemes. “Even presuming that Goa does not give both seats to the BJP in the election, Modi will still become the Prime Minister. But I will have no face to approach Modi to resolve Goa’s long-pending issues, including special status. No doubt, Modi is in good terms with Goa, but we have to also show that we too support him”, he added.
Parrikar made an appeal to the people to give the BJP both the Lok Sabha seats to change the face of Goa within the next three years. “Stand by the BJP. Don’t fall prey to false political propaganda that the BJP is communal”, he said.
