MARGAO
Saying he had taken the initiative to bring together non-BJP forces together with the sole purpose to dislodge the BJP in Goa, Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai on Saturday has dared Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Patkar to break the alliance with the regional party.
Saying that the Congress, Goa Forward and Revolutionary Goans Party are on the job to discuss seat-sharing for the upcoming Zilla Panchayat polls, Sardesai did not rule out the possibility of three parties engaged in friendly fights in certain seats in the event of disagreement.
When the media drew his attention to the Congress’ move to induct Adv Amit Sawant after his suspension by the Goa Forward Party, Sardesai shot back, “the Goa Forward party has been a pre-poll alliance of the Congress party before the 2022 polls. We fail to understand how come Patkar rushed to induct Sawant into the Congress when a friendly party had placed him under suspension. May be Patkar loves the Sawants. Other than that there is no explanation why the Congress chief was in a hurry to take our leader.”
Saying that the GFP had entered into Congress party in 2022 when Patkar had not even though that he would head the Congress in Goa, Sardesai said “if Patkar has the guts he should break the alliance”.
Saying he is very much serious in taking the alliance forward, the GFP chief said he has taken the initiative to bring all opposition forces under one banner at the Narkarsura competition at the SGPDA grounds. “Being the senior-most amongst the opposition MLAs, I had taken the initiative to bring together the Congress, GFP and the RGP. I have even had seat-sharing arrangements with the Congress and RGP. I hope something will come out of the ongoing discussions,” he said.
He, however, reminded the Congress to take quick decisions saying the ZP polls are due next month. Saying the Congress is scouting for candidates for all the ZP seats, Sardesai said, “we will protect the alliance. If there is an issue over certain seats, we will have friendly fights amongst the alliance partners.”
Vijai calls police jobs-for-cash probe a sham, suspects political pressure on Dhavalikars
MARGAO: A day after Pooja Naik has named former PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar in the jobs-for-cash scam, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai has wondered whether it is part of the BJP’s pressure tactics to tame the Lion ahead of the upcoming Zilla Panchayat polls.
He further termed the police investigations into the scam a sham, raising questions whether the truth will ever come out when Vigilance inquiries in corruption cases are pending against the officials investigating the scam.
Sardesai further said the Chief Minister, who is also the Home Minister, should clarify why the police did not investigate Minister Sudin Dhavalikar assuming Pooja Naik had named him in the scam. “We have to understand that Pooja Naik is an accused in a crime. The police should explain what they have done till date in respect of the investigations. It appears that the preliminary investigation in the case is farce. This has made me to suspect whether the government is to trying to suffocate the Dhavalikars ahead of the ZP polls,” he said.
