PANJIM: The Congress on Thursday complained to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is distributing booklets during election campaigns, which are printed by the government using taxpayers’ money. In the complaint, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Vice President Sunil Kawthankar said, “BJP is using booklets printed by the Department of Information and Publicity, Government of Goa, for distribution to the public during campaigning.” Stating that this is an utter abuse of power and taxpayers’ money by the BJP government for campaigning, Kawthankar said, “All this expense should be reflected in the expenditure of BJP candidates. They are misusing the State exchequer and printing booklets to distribute to voters.”
“It is shocking that the Election Commission, which has officers all over the place, could not notice this blatant abuse of taxpayers’ money being committed by the ruling party members during the campaigning,” he said. He requested the CEO to immediately stop the illegal distribution and verify the source of the booklets.
He also demanded that the same be included as expenditure incurred by the BJP’s North Goa candidate.
