PANAJI
Prominent Fatorda Scheduled Tribe leader and an Independent candidate in the Fatorda constituency Agostinho Miranda on Monday withdrew in favour of Congress-Goa Forward candidate and sitting MLA Vijai Sardesai to avoid splitting of opposition votes that will help a BJP win, stated a press release.
“After much thought and consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that my candidature would split the anti-BJP votes and favour BJP. This has to be avoided at all costs so I’ve decided to withdraw”, Agostinho said, adding that he’s also appealing to Seoula Vaz, the Trinamool Congress candidate, on behalf of the large ST community to withdraw and not help to bring back BJP.
“I decided to contest as an Independent when I found that there was no candidate from my community. I felt that the constituency should be represented by an ST candidate as there were a lot of ST voters in Fatorda. I approached the Trinamool Congress for the Fatorda ticket but I was snubbed by them.” Agostinho said, stating that they did not even know what the ST community was.
“What’s ST? They asked me. There are hardly any STs in Fatorda. The Bengali party does not know anything about us and we’re Mull Goemkars. That was very insulting”, Agostinho said.
"However, after I filled my form, my friends, relatives, well-wishers and neighbours, all convinced me that despite not belonging to the community Vijaibab has a strong bond with the ST community of Fatorda and has done so much for them that we should not work against him and deprive Fatorda of a deserving MLA."
He added that there has been a lot of pressure from his community to not do anything that will favour a BJP win.
