Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress will not field any panel for the March 6 Corporation of City of Panaji elections. As the party did at the panchayat elections, it will support secular candidates.
“As per the policy of the Congress, the party will not be a part of the elections but we will identify good candidates with secular ideology and support them,” Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Luizinho Faleiro said on Tuesday. He was quick to add that the party would support candidates opposing BJP.
Asked whether the party would support the Babush Monserrate panel as reports suggest he would be tying up with Congressman Surendra Furtado, the GPCC president said, “It would be premature to speak on that as of now. There is lot of time left for elections and also we have only heard about the Babush-Furtado tie-up through newspapers, so let us wait and see.”
Taking the government head-on, Faleiro criticised it for poor tourist arrivals during the Christmas week. “It was the worst of seasons. Occupancy in hotels was just 30 to 40 percent which has never happened before. The State government has done nothing for the tourism industry,” he said.
The GPCC president also pooh-poohed Parrikar’s statement on land allotment to the Defence Ministry for DefExpo stating it was a blatant lie. “Enough is enough, the Congress will now be forced to take to the streets if the government does not revert its decision on granting land to the Defence ministry,” he said.
