MARGAO, OCT 7
Members of Margao’s Muslim community is an agitated lot accusing the Congress of using the community as a “tissue paper” and has resolved to field its own panel in the ensuing polls for the Margao Municipal Council.
The community singled out Chief Minister Digambar Kamat for using the minorities only for his selfish political ends and demanded to know why the Margao MLA did not deem fit to field candidates in wards having sizeable Muslim population.
That’s not all. They threatened to field a Muslim candidate against the Chief Minister in the next Assembly polls.
Addressing a press conference, Iftikar Shaikh said the Congress under the name of secularism has sidelined the Muslims. “The Kabrastan issue comes to the fore only during the elections. They have not solved the issue for the last 30 years”, he said.
He said though the Constitution does not provide for reservation of municipal seats on religious lines, nothing has stopped the Congress leaders, including the Chief Minister to field candidates from the community in the wards of their influence.
He said the Congress wins minimum six seats in the Assembly polls on account of the support from the Muslim minority and helps the party to form the government.
General Secretary of the Sirvodem Masjid, Abdul Matin Carol said the Congress party cannot fool all the people all the time and charged the Congress leaders including the Chief Minister for treating the Muslim community as a vote bank.
In fact, Carol said the Minorities were better placed during the tenure of former Congress Chief Minister, Pratapsing Rane, adding that Rane used to take the minorities into confidence on all issues.
He said Digambar Kamat has been getting elected from Margao with the support of the Muslim community, but lamented that the community has not gained in any way with Kamat at the helm of affairs.
Coming down heavily on the government on the reservation issue, he said the reservation was unveiled on the eve of filing of nomination papers, Carol said the government has reserved ward No 3 for ST community though the ward has a large presence of the Muslims.
“We have now decided to field a panel of candidates from the Muslim community. The community will also field a candidate in the Assembly polls from Margao”, Carol asserted.
