the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress on Thursday said, the mood was anti-BJP throughout the polling day on Tuesday across the State and expressed confidence that their candidates in all the five contests - 2 Lok Sabha seats and 3 Assembly bypoll seats - will emerge victorious when counting takes place on May 23.
“We are confident the BJP will suffer a 6-0 defeat, including the Panaji bypoll slated for May 19. We will be in a position to form the government on May 23,” Girish Chodankar, the Congress’ state president and its candidate for the North Goa Lok Sabha seat said.
Chodankar was addressing a press conference, his first since Tuesday’s polling, in the company of Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar and the party’s candidates in Mapusa and Mandrem, Sudhir Kandolkar and Babi Bhagkar.
Chodankar said, even cabinet ministers, MLAs and leaders from the BJP-led coalition government in the State were on the ground working in favour of the Congress
candidates.
He said, the support extended to the Congress from the MGP also served as a major boost and thanked the party’s leaders and workers. “The day we announced the South Goa and Mapusa candidates, both these seats were taken to be won by the Congress. In the other contests, as the campaigning picked up, our candidates emerged winning horses with enthusiastic support from Goa’s electorate wherever we campaigned and more specifically in the mining belt of Goa,” Chodankar said.
Kavlekar said, despite the misuse of both the State as well as Central government machinery by the BJP during the elections, the electorate supported the Congress candidates in all five contests across the State.
Bagkar, who is the Congress candidate in the Mandrem bypoll said the common man in the constituency was enthused by the fact that the party had given the ticket to a simple party worker like him. He expressed confidence that the electorate of Mandrem, despite the excessive illegal use of money by opponents, will have supported him during Tuesday’s polling.
CM’s poll eve meet at Mapusa was to manage cash distribution: Kandolkar
PANAJI: Congress candidate for the Mapusa bypoll, Sudhir Kandolkar and GPCC president Girish Chodankar accused Chief Minister Pramod Sawant of holding a meeting late night on Monday, a day before polling, at the Mapusa Residency hotel, to strategise illegal distribution of cash for elections.
Kandolkar claimed that councillors of the Mapusa Municipal Council as well as BJP workers were making multiple trips in and out of Mapusa residency that night, adding that there was large scale use of money. He said, he did file a complaint with the election officials but the latter checked on it and then reported to him that meetings in a private room were beyond their jurisdiction.
Asked whether money was being distributed from the place where Sawant was holding the meetings at Mapusa residency, Kandolkar said he was not sure but added later on that intervening Monday-Tuesday night his workers did report suspicious activity in several of Mapusa’s locations.
