Team Herald
MARGAO: Public anger against the Congress defectors spilled onto the streets of Nuvem with the locals of the constituency along with Congress supporters holding a protest near the residence of BJP MLA Aleixo Sequeira on Wednesday morning.
They demanded that Sequeira resign and dared him to recontest the Assembly elections on any party ticket as they would get a chance to teach him a lesson by ensuring that he never gets elected again.
They said they are waiting to give him the ‘real’ post-retirement package, the wrath of the public for selling the votes of the ‘Congress bastion’ to the BJP for ‘his personal retirement package’.
Earlier, the constituents had to thwart Police attempts to halt the protest, and they were not able to hold it right outside Sequeira’s house, but 50-70 metres away.
While the police put barricades to block traffic, protestors gathered on the side of the Raia to Manora road and Ponda to Margao highway. The police were criticised for inconveniencing locals without showing any order from the South district collector stating why the road was closed. The vehicles of Congress President Amit Patkar and other leaders were also stopped by the police.
These attempts however failed to dissuade the large number of protestors who had gathered with placards and were shouting slogans condemning Sequeira for defecting to the BJP and breaking his promise to them. They also smeared Sequeira’s effigy with cow dung before setting it ablaze.
“This is the first peaceful protest in front of a defector’s house. We will go to the houses of all the remaining defectors. You can hear what the people are saying and you can see how angry they are. He has lied to his voters,” said Savio da Silva, the Congress South Goa District President.
“I was the Nuvem Congress Block President and we were present when Aleixo went to the houses campaigning and we have seen him promise that he will never leave the Congress. We are very upset that he has gone back on his word as we told people to vote for him based on that promise,” said Manuel D’Costa.
Another former supporter of Sequeira, Ramiro Mascarenhas from Loutolim, recalled that Sequeira voluntarily placed his hand on ‘Saibins’ (Mother Mary statues) near the houses of voters during his pre-poll campaign trail and vowed not to defect.
Some supporters of Sequeira pointed out that he was unable to go to every house himself, due to which, they had put in their time and energy to campaign for him. They lamented that they are now getting calls blaming them for supporting Sequeira. Anthony Da Silva from Velim pointed out that the non-BJP vote share in Nuvem is 97% and only 3% is for BJP.
Everson Vales, who was a contender for the Nuvem Congress ticket and Moreno Rebello, who contested as the Congress candidate from the neighbouring Curtorim constituency, further recalled how Sequeira had pleaded with the Congress to get the ticket only to betray the party post the elections.
Locals from Nuvem, including senior female citizens, mocked Sequeira for not having the courage to show his face to them since the day he had defected and for also avoiding them on Wednesday morning at his residence.
