TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The South Goa Congress Candidate Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco has made a complaint to the Returning Officer about the BJP distributing voter slips with the BJP Party symbol, Party name and Candidate name which he says is illegal and in violation of the Model Code of Conduct and election procedures.
The complaint suggests that this is being done to unlawfully influence the voters to vote for the BJP and that the BJP has also selectively targeted the minority communities, so as to trick them into taking these voter slips to the polling booth on the day of election, so that they will not be allowed to cast their vote, thus dissuading them from coming back to vote due to unnecessary hardships.
He said that this is a ploy by the BJP since they know the minority communities are not supporting them in the upcoming elections.
The Congress party has also said that the entire election machinery is being influenced by the ruling state govt to benefit the BJP candidate by harassing the supporters of the Congress candidate. He said that in Vasco two persons were unlawfully arrested for mobilizing support for the Congress candidate on the pretext of inciting fight in the area. The Congress party has completely refuted these charges, saying that the charges are bogus and baseless. ‘How can roaming in an area, with proper permission and communicating with the people, result in inciting fights?’ asked the Congress candidate’s election agent Subhash Faldesai. The Congress has asked for immediate action to be taken by the election officials and these officers who are acting at the behest of the ruling govt should be immediately transferred in order to maintain a free and fair election procedure.
