PANJIM: Congress on Friday accused Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar of trying to use money power to bulldoze those who planned to contest in Panjim in the by-election, to ensure that he gets elected unopposed.
“The way things unfolded after Babush Monserrate issue, it was advocate Surendra Desai and then Ashok Naik. It looked like BJP didn’t want any contest,” Congress Panjim candidate Girish Chodankar said during his campaign.
“BJP was using it might and money power to bulldoze everyone who wanted to contest. Parrikar wanted to get elected unopposed,” he charged. He added, “In a healthy democracy people are masters and you should give option to the people and they should decide. So I wanted to give option to the people of Panjim. It is to give freedom from fear.”
Monserrate, who was Congress first choice, joined Goa Forward Party – a partner in the coalition government. Desai and Naik, too turned down Congress offers. Chodankar, who hails from South Goa, was thereafter chosen as candidate.
He said that when his party decided to field him, there was no dearth of candidates. “It is not a question of candidate. It is a question of who will stand the pressure,” he said.
“We had many candidates but after three of our candidates were hijacked by BJP, which is the party in command, it looked like Parrikar was aware of the ground reality that the people are against him because he served the last 23 years as MLA without performance,” Chodankar alleged.
Chodankar said Congress will try to form the government in the State once Parrikar is defeated.
