THE GOAN NETWORK
CANACONA
Caste politics initiated by All India OBC Mahasabha (AIOBCM) to support one of the many OBC candidates in the forthcoming Canacona Assembly has created a rift within the Mahasabha itself with Canacona AIOBCM branch distancing itself from the political interference of the state-level AIOBCM.
Addressing a press conference, AIOBCM Canacona branch president Mangesh Pagi declared, “The Canacona branch is totally against the decision taken by AIOBCM State President Shashikant Ghadi to support Canacona Congress candidate Janardhan Bhandari for the forthcoming Assembly elections. As previously decided, the Mahasabha will not give vent to any 'rajniti-karye', but stick to only 'samaj-karye'. The AIOBCM State leadership never consulted us before deviating from this amicably accepted terminology as far as elections are concerned. How, as claimed by Ghadi, the winnability of Janardhan Bhandari is arrived at against the other OBC candidates without even consulting the local AIOBCM unit is beyond our imagination. We are totally against this high-handedness of AIOBCM State leadership, and hereby announce that each of our over 17,000 OBC electorate are free to take their own decision, support and vote as per their own choice.”
AIOBCM State Youth President and Canacona Youth President Sunay Komarpant questioned as to how the State leadership can take a biased stand in the elections when it was clearly agreed in the past not to politicise the Mahasabha.
“Even our AIOBCM Canacona ex-president Adv Anoop Kudtarkar resigned from the post the moment he learnt that he was going to contest the elections. Time and again, it has been decided not to promote raj-karan, but only samaj-karye. Without even giving a hint or for that matter consulting the local unit, state leadership declared support to a particular candidate. This is unacceptable. Each and every community member is free to decide the choice of their candidates presently contesting irrespective of their community, and vote according to their conscience,” Komarpant said.
Adv Kudtarkar who is contesting this election as an AAP candidate stated that he had resigned as AIOBCM Canacona president and never approached any community member for support despite being from the community.
Mahila Wing General Secretary Komal Pagi, Ramnath Pagi and Guru also spoke on the occasion and criticized the decision of the AIOBCM State leadership to back a particular OBC candidate in the upcoming assembly elections. Instead, they appealed to the different OBC community members to ‘vote for whoever they feel convenient’.
