PANJIM: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has ridiculed Congress for not having any central leader to campaign for its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The ruling coalition also took a dig at the party citing that its very own legislators are not interested to campaign for Congress’s LS candidates.
Addressing a press conference of NDA, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said Congress is not serious about Goa as far as the parliamentary elections are concerned.
“BJP is serious about both the Lok Sabha seats and we had leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu, and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis campaigning for the candidates. The party has taken both the Lok Sabha seats seriously but Congress is not serious about Goa as far as elections are concerned. From the time elections are announced till date, Congress did not have any of their national leaders coming to Goa,” he said.
Coalition partners including Independent MLAs Rohan Khaunte Govind Gaude and Goa Forward MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar (Goa Forward Party), were present for the media briefing.
Sawant further pointed out to how majority Congress legislators have distanced themselves from campaigning for their candidates. “Forget about national leaders, their own MLAs are not with the official candidate. At least I don’t see the Congress MLAs going around with the candidates (for the campaigning),” he added.
The NDA also did not leave any opportunity to take a dig at the AICC President Rahul Gandhi led party for his repeated claim of giving “Nyay” and “Swabhimaan” to the country.
He went on to state that Congress during its tenure did not manage to get the fund for the State while Modi-led government has provided financial muscles to every sector in last five years.
The coalition, backing BJP candidates in both the districts, have vouched that they will further strengthen the State in the coming years. “We are confident to win all the seats,” Sawant said while also referring to the assembly constituencies going for by-polls. “We are a young cabinet and we will fulfill Bhai (ex-CM Manohar Parrikar) dreams. In the next three years (of the BJP-led coalition in the State), we will boost infrastructure and human development,” he added.
Khaunte, who has been campaigning for North Goa candidate in his constituency, is optimistic that Naik will yet again win the LS polls, this time with a bigger margin than the previous elections.
The alliance conceded that during the ill-health of Parrikar, the government related works had slowed down but soon after the lifting of the code, the works would begin in full swing. “However, a lot of work was still done during the last two years,” Khaunte added.
The NDA also ruled out any impact on the voting based on religious grounds.
