MARGAO
When the hands of Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi and Goa Forward leader Vijai Sardesai went up in Delhi early last week in favour of an alliance, a Congress hoarding put up at the entrance to Fatorda highlighting the party’s promise to provide formalin-free fish has come down.
The hoarding has suddenly disappeared from the place adjoining the hoarding of Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Didi after the Congress leadership joined hands with the Goa Forward leaders in the national capital to unitedly contest the ensuing 2022 Assembly polls.
Congress leaders in private, however, were quick to point out that the replacement of the hoarding with a party promise to provide formalin-free fish has nothing to do with the decision of the party leaders joining hands with the Goa Forward leaders.
A party leader was clear in saying the Congress has replaced hoardings and slogans not just at Dovondem, but at many places with new slogans and promises ahead of the coming polls.
Call it a sheer coincidence or otherwise, the Congress party’s hoarding has gone missing from the spot days after leaders of both the parties joined hands in Delhi. When the hoarding had made its presence felt at the Dovondem-Nuvem border, the message, sources said, did not go down well with Goa Forward party leaders, more so since the hoarding had come up just meters away from the residence of party supremo Vijai Sardesai.
If sources are to be believed, the Goa Forward Party had taken offense to the hoarding and had conveyed its displeasure to the Congress leadership on the hoarding erected just meters away from Sardesai’s residence.
The Congress hoarding had read as follows: “Our guarantee: Food testing laboratory for formalin-free fish”, sending clear indications the principal opposition party was hell bent in raking up the formalin row that had hit the headlines in 2017 when FDA Officer Iva Fernandes had claimed that fish tested at the wholesale fish market at Fatorda was laced with formalin.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Chief Girish Chodankar was not available for comment, but sources in the Congress informed that the party has replaced the old hoardings to make way new ones with new slogans.
“The Congress party is committed to ensure that Goans get
formalin-free fish. We are also committed to get a state-of-the-art laboratory to test fish and other products to protect the health of Goans”, remarked a Congress leader, downplaying the replacement of the hoarding with the formalin message.
