PANJIM: The opposition Congress Party on Wednesday strongly refuted the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party’s (MGP) charge that the former had pressurised the then Chief Minister late Bhausaheb Bandodkar to merge Goa with Maharashtra.
Reacting to statement made by MGP president Deepak Dhavalikar that Congress did not want Goa to be a separate State and wanted to merge the State with Maharashtra or Karnataka, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Patkar said, “When MGP wanted merger it was Congress which fought against it. Goa Daman and Diu Assembly had passed a resolution recommending Goa’s merger with Maharashtra. When the Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in 1966, the then Jan Sangh MP U M Trivedi opposed it. MGP should clarify why Jan Sangh MP opposed the resolution to grant historic Opinion Poll?”
Patkar said despite Congress not having a single MLA in Goa then, pursued the matter with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who gave Opinion Poll, which the people of Goa wanted. “Today we are fighting to protect the Mhadei river, but the double engine Sarkar cannot settle it. This shows their willingness,” said Patkar.
