PANAJI:
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said the Congress is not serious about Goa and not a single national Congress leader has come to campaign for it.
“Congress is not serious about Goan elections. From the day the election was declared till date, not a single leader of the Congress has come to Goa. I doubt if any national leader of the Congress will come in the next three days,” Sawant said at a press conference.
“Unlike the Congress, the BJP is always serious about Goa’s election campaign,” added Sawant.
Ministers Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude and Jayesh Salgaonkar flanked Sawant as he addressed the press conference and extended full support to the BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national leaders like Suresh Prabhu and Nitin Gadkari had campaigned in Goa. Devendra Fadnavis also came. This shows the importance our national leaders are giving to Goa,” Sawant said, adding that for the first time in Goa's political history BJP had two ministers at the Centre, while the Congress during its tenure had not allotted any funds to the state.
“Even Congress MLAs are not campaigning for their candidates,” Sawant claimed, and expressed confidence that a stable government will be voted to power at the Centre.
He repeated his commitment that in the next three years with his young cabinet colleagues he will focus on infrastructure and human development.
Khaunte expressed confidence of Shripad Naik winning with a comfortable margin and said that the government is working for development and stability. “We are taking ahead the vision of Manohar Parrikar,” he added.
"Our support is for the candidate put up by our coalition partner. We are all working together. We want to give him another term," said Khaunte.
Gaude appealed to the people to vote for Shripad, who he said was an open-hearted person.
Salgaonkar said the Ayush Minister was of good character and refuted criticism that he had not worked for the State.
He said, Naik's performance in MPLAD stood 11th in the entire country and if re-elected, he will be in the Council of Ministers again.
