MARGAO
With still two years to go for the Lok Sabha polls, Congress MP representing South Goa constituency, Francisco Sardinha on Wednesday said there’s still time to decide whether he would seek re-election for the Lok Sabha election scheduled in 2024.
In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the South Goa MP had announced that the elections would be his last election.
However, when the media sought to know from the South Goa MP, whether he has any plans to seek re-election from South Goa in 2024, the MP shot back: “Let us not talk now when the polls are scheduled two years from now. Let God keep us in good health”.
When the media further pressed him whether he would seek reelection on the Congress banner if health permits him to contest the polls, Sardinha said the decision whether to contest or not will be taken at that time.
That the senior Congress leader and four-time MP has not ruled out the question of retiring from politics after completing the current term in 2024 has only fueled reports that the MP may seek the party ticket to contest the 2024 polls.
Meanwhile, addressing the media in the presence of South Goa District Congress President Savio D’Silva, the South Goa MP has warned that the government would invite the curse of Goan youth if the concerned ministers pocket all the jobs for their constituents.
“I do not mind if the ministers give preference to their constituents but, let me remind them that they are not ministers of their constituencies, but the whole of Goa. If they do not mete out justice, they will invite curses of the youth of Goa”, he warned.
Sardinha further reminded the government that there are hundreds, if not thousands of youth, who were engaged by the government on a contract basis, especially those who were roped in during the Covid pandemic.
He demanded that the government immediately release the payments for the DSSS beneficiaries, saying the government should have accorded priority to releasing the doles instead of spending crores of rupees on the oath-taking ceremony.
