Congress’ new member, Benjamin Silva, seen with supporters during a membership enrollment drive at Assolna. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO: A fortnight after he embraced the Congress party amidst opposition from the rival camp headed by Velim Sarpanch Savio D’Silva, former Independent Velim MLA Benjamin D’Silva and his supporters went on a membership enrollment drive on Saturday, even as he accused arch rival and Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues for not completing the projects he had initiated in the constituency between 2012-17.
The former Independent MLA, who had supported the BJP-led Manohar Parrikar government in 2012 initiated the membership drive at Assolna village by enrolling over 200 new members in the presence of a Congress observer Rajesh Griglani. Having already announced that he would stake claim for the Congress ticket, Benjamin underlined the need to show BJP the door and bring Congress back to power.
“We have to strengthen the party at the grassroots. People had returned Congress to power whenever the governments had done good work. We need the Congress back to power since the BJP government is working against the people”, he said, while exuding confidence that the people of Goa will return the Congress to power with maximum seats.
Launching his tirade at arch rival, Congress-turned-BJP MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Benjamin said the Minister has not even completed the projects he had initiated in the past. “Government is a continuous process, but many projects initiated by me in the past have still not been completed”, he rued.
On his support to the BJP in 2012, the former Independent MLA said the BJP already had 21 MLAs in the House and he had extended support to the government solely to usher in the development of Velim constituency. “I had managed to get projects worth Rs 250 crore in Velim during my stint as MLA”, he added.
Besides Benjamin, South Goa district Congress Chief Joe Dias and VelimSarpanchSavioD’Silva are strong contenders for the Velim congress ticket. In fact, both Joe and Savio had already enrolled congress members during the drive earlier this year.
