PANAJI
Pratima Coutinho, who quit the Congress and joined AAP on Saturday said that senior congress leaders like Luizinho Faleiro, Digamber Kamat looked at her as a threat and worked against her in the Zilla Panchayat elections.
Pratima who lost the Zilla Panchayat election said that she was made a scapegoat by Congress by giving her a ticket just before 14 days of of the ZP elections. Also there was no support forthcoming from party leaders like Digamber Kamat, Churchill Alemao, Franscico Sardinha, she said.
She said that the party leaders from Congress always tried to pull her down, alleging that she was used as a bonded labourer. She said she gave 24 years of her life to Congress working as a loyal party worker.
She also alleged that Congress leaders also worked against Reginaldo Lourence during the Lok Sabha elections which resulted in the defeat of Reginaldo.
"If I was greedy for the post I would have joined BJP as I had hefty offers," said Pratima Coutinho.
Pratima said that AAP is the only option for Goans who love their land and want to protect Goa.
She said she got calls from BJP and Congress leaders from Goa as well as Delhi offering her various positions after it was known that she was quitting the Congress.
"But I did not go by those promises and joined AAP after a two hour long meeting with Arvind Kejriwal," she said.
While disclosing that Kejriwal had told her that she would be the face of AAP in Goa, she said it was a responsibility given to her to build the party which she said she was willing to do "AAP shall be built like how I developed the Mahila Congress in Goa by taking up issues affecting the common man," she said.
Pratima said she was used by the Congress as bonded labour and asserted that Goa and Goans are her first priority and expressed confidence that AAP will save Goa.
"I joined AAP because of its ideology and because it is a secular party," she said while pointing out that even Girish Chodankar had said that AAP was growing in Goa.She said Kejriwal had assured her that women will be quite prominent in AAP and said she would get elected to the next assembly but refrained from naming the constituency.Replying to a question she said wait and watch how many more people would join AAP now.
AAP Goa Convener Rahul Mhambre while welcoming Pratima said her decision has enthused the party and said Pratima with her new symbol of broom will clean the political atmosphere in the State. Capt Venzy Viegas urged all people who love Goa and want to protect it to join AAP.
