PANAJI
Having left everybody surprised over his move to join BJP along with seven other Congress MLAs, St Cruz MLA Rudolf Fernandes clarified that he sought opinion of his supporters before taking the decision.
Speaking to The Goan, Fernandes said he spoke to his close supporters who advised him to join BJP.
“They told me that I would be in a better position to undertake development of St Cruz being part of the ruling government rather than in the opposition,” the MLA informed, while stating that he took the plunge only after getting convinced over the same.
When pointed out that the earlier MLA Tony Fernandes too had promised the same thing but nothing actually happened as far as development of St Cruz was concerned, Fernandes said that he will ensure that development is ushered in St Cruz.
“I am not Tony and I am going to see to it that development is undertaken in St Cruz. There are lots of development works to be undertaken in the constituency which were planned during the tenure of my late mother as MLA,” he pointed out.
When questioned over rumours doing the rounds that he was pressured into joining the BJP by showing fear of SIT, Fernandes replied that nothing like that happened.
To another question over him joining the government in which his foe and minister Rohan Khaunte is also part of, Fernandes said he has no problems with it.
On whether he will continue his opposition to the IT Park in Chimbel, a project which Khaunte was aggressively pursuing in the past, Fernandes said he would be with the people in opposing the same.
“Me joining the government and the IT Park in Chimbel are two different issues. They have no correlation and my opposition to the project will continue,” he added.
