Team Herald
MAPUSA: The son of the former Deputy Chief Minister, Joshua D’Souza, filed his nomination for the Mapusa by-poll before the retuning officer on Tuesday. BJP’s top brass and workers accompanied him when he filed his nomination.
Addressing the media after filing his nomination, D’Souza who expressed his confidence at winning the election, said his top priority would be to complete the pending projects of his late father, Francis (Babush) D’Souza.
“One of the projects my father worked hard for, but could not complete before his passing, was laying the foundation stone for the proposed Mapusa bus stand. The Ravindra Bhavan was another project, which he had worked tirelessly for. These two and other projects such as a parking structure to decongest the city, power supply, good roads and adequate water supply are now my top priorities,” he said.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant stated that BJP is a worker’s party and this has been witnessed in Mapusa as the Mapusa MLA was a ‘karyakata’, a minority leader and was known throughout Goa.
“We had taken a decision to give the ticket to the son of Babush because his father was working for the people for the last two decades. The councillors are with him and he has been working tirelessly in the area. Babush had a dream for Mapusa and the support of everyone is needed to take up development here Joshua will take forward the incomplete works in Mapusa and carry out total development. The Ravindra Bhavan should have come here but there was problem due to lack of space. The bus stand work he has taken forward. It takes many years to work towards getting any project approved,” said Sawant, who had come to support Joshua for the filing of his nomination.
“. We had told Sudhir Kandolkar to remain with us but he took a hasty decision. I don’t want to say anything about that. Right now are all united and supporting Joshua. The people of Mapusa will support the BJP and Joshua will win by a huge margin,” said Sawant, when asked to comment on Kandolkar, the former BJP strongman and Mapusa councilor, who is now Congress’s candidate for Mapusa.
