VASCO
GPCC Vice President Sankalp Amonkar on Wednesday accused the BJP of filing false complaints and misusing government and police machinery to harass his candidates for the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC).
Addressing a news conference, Amonkar alleged that an environment of fear is being created in the Mormugao constituency, which comprises nine wards going to the MMC polls.
“Since April 16, there have been several false complaints against our candidates. One BJP-backed candidate filed a complaint that my wife, also an aspirant candidate, distributed mixers.”
“We are being called to the Deputy Collector’s office and made to sit for hours together, leading to a waste of precious time we would have spent in our campaign. However, when we filed a counter-complaint against the opposition candidates, there had been no response from authorities and none of their candidates have been summoned," said Amonkar.
"The flying squad, which include many electricity department officials, are also being pressurized. Government staff are being pressurised to act against us and this is an injustice to candidates of our panel.”
“The police department is being misused and there is a police force every 100 metres and most of them are stationed outside the offices of our candidates, only to instil fear among voters and to prevent them from visiting offices of our candidates," said Amonkar.
"I had conducted a meeting in Baina after due permission on Tuesday evening and midway, there were six jeep-loads of police at the site and people began to panic.
“While they did nothing, the police stayed there all through the meeting and even during the rally in Ward 9, the police arrived on the site and our voters got scared. These are dirty elections tactics," said Amonkar.
Amonkar also complained that their supporters were being taken to the police station and released only at night.
“The police claims there is a complaint and they are taking our supporters to the police station based on false complains," said Amonkar.
“This only goes to show that the BJP is scared of the opposition and is trying to do everything possible to stop our candidates and our supporters from canvassing," said Amonkar.
Two candidates, Nitin Chopdekar and Shekhar Khadapkar, also spoke at the news conference.
