PANAJI
If former Governor Satya Pal Malik has the guts, he should resign as the Governor of Meghalaya and contest elections in Goa, instead of making wild allegations from the comfort of a constitutional position, Goa Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said on Wednesday.
Ajgaonkar also hinted at a “setting” between Malik and Opposition parties in Goa, to malign the image of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the state.
“He has to safeguard the value of the Governor's position. If you have the guts you retire and say whatever you want. Come into politics, contest elections in Goa, we do not have a problem,” Ajgaonkar told reporters on Wednesday.
“Do not defame Dr Pramod Sawant's name ahead of elections. The CM works 18 hours a day. He has raised infrastructure for Covid. He (Malik) is making these comments because he was made to run out of here,” the Tourism Minister said, referring to Malik’s sudden departure from Goa in August last year.
Ajgaonkar was reacting to the controversy which has erupted in Goa following Malik’s interview to a national news channel on Monday, in which the former Goa Governor said that corruption was omnipresent in "anything and everything" of the BJP-led coalition government, including in humanitarian relief efforts during the Covid lockdown last year.
Opposition parties in Goa have now demanded Sawant’s resignation over Malik’s charge.
Ajgaonkar has now hinted at an alleged deal between the Opposition and Malik to raise the political temperature in the state ahead of the 2022 assembly polls and discredit Sawant.
“He could have been in touch with the opposition, there could be fixing. He has given an advantage to the opposition. He should be probed by the Home department. He should have evidence for the claims he is making,” Ajgaonkar also said.
