PANAJI
When asked whether it is true that certain local leaders are not backing the GFP candidate in Mandrem, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai said, “Whoever is not with us is anti-Goa. Because the senior partners of this alliance are the people of Goa. This alliance is for ‘development by consent’, according to a press note.
Sardesai was speaking to media on Saturday when he was seen campaigning for the alliance candidate Deepak Kalangutkar in Junaswada in Mandrem. They were accompanied by Congress leaders Narayan Redkar, Pradip Desai, Pranav Parab and Francis D’Souza and GFP leaders Dr Renuka Da Silva and Sushant Ghodge.
Sardesai explained, “We are ‘Team Goa’, a pre-poll alliance, of not just the Congress & GFP. Our senior partners in the alliance are Goa’s janata. This alliance is of all those who are serious about liberating Goa from the anti-people BJP government. That is why I call these elections the second opinion poll. The CM has said that he will rebuild temples demolished by the Portuguese. How does he plan to do this? By bringing down churches built long back? He is actually sending a signal that, if the BJP comes back to power, they will destroy the communal harmony between Hindus, Christians and Muslims, which is true Goemkarponn. This is the irresponsible attitude of this accidental Chief Minister. I have always been for Team Goa.”
Sardesai further stated, “We will go ahead with development projects which the people of Goa want, and not those that yield the maximum ‘commission’. Those who want this will support this alliance, or else they will be exposed as traitors to the cause of Goa.”
Sardesai thanked the local Congress leaders for having stood by their promise to back Deepak Kalangutkar, who is a deserving candidate, having risen up from the grass-roots level, and who has pledged to rid Mandrem of the virus of dadagiri, extortion and other crimes promoted by those currently in power.
