PANAJI
In a no holds barred press conference, AITC National General Secretary & Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee tore into the Congress and its senior leader P Chidambaram for misleading Goenkars and for failing to stitch an alliance in the larger interest of the people of Goa.
The press briefing was held in the presence of Goa TMC Youth President Jayesh Shetgaonkar and Goa TMC Mahila Vice-President Pratibha Borkar at the party office in Panaji.
Banerjee rejected the accusation that TMC was trying to split the opposition vote which in turn was benefitting the BJP. Banerjee said, “AITC Chairperson Mamata Banerjee gave a clarion call way back in October to all like-minded parties (anti-BJP forces) to unite in order to oust the BJP in Goa. TMC went out of the way and reached out to everyone. The MGP responded positively while the others did not”.
Not mincing his words, Banerjee said, “Had we wanted to split Congress vote we would have gone to Punjab, Rajasthan or other Congress ruled states. But where did we go? We went to Tripura, Meghalaya and came to Goa instead where there is a BJP Government”.
Lashing out at Chidambaram, he said, “Chidambaram claims that there was no concrete proposal made to him. He is misleading the people of Goa and the nation. There has to be a limit to hypocrisy. There has to be a limit to poker-face. Today, time has come to expose him. I want to give you facts. AITC Vice-President Pavan Varma went to his house in Delhi on December 24 at 1:30 PM to appeal to him to stitch an alliance for the sake of Goenkars. But he failed to rise above his own petty goals. He even failed to come to the table to talk about a possible alliance”.
Further, he challenged the Congress Goa in-charge and said, ‘If anything I say is wrong, I ask Chidambaram to file a defamation case against me. TMC will not be a silent spectator. We will fight till our last drop of blood but we will not let Congress fool the Goans anymore”.
He added, “Congress is in an unspoken alliance with the BJP. Every vote to the Congress is a direct vote to the BJP. If Congress fails to defeat the BJP then Chidambaram should take moral responsibility and should be the first person to resign”.
On being questioned about why Reginaldo Lourenco quit the TMC, Abhishek said, “those who want to fight for Goans can stay. Those who want to fight for their own vested interests can leave”.
Further, on being questioned on whether Luizinho Faleiro was upset over his nomination from the Fatorda constituency, Banerjee clarified, “There is no resentment. I have never heard that someone is upset on getting a ticket. Our National Vice-President Faleiro is a soldier and he is going to fight against the betrayer-in-chief (Vijai Sardesai).
Banerjee also reiterated that TMC was the only party that had fire in the belly to take the BJP head on and that TMC would fight till the last drop of blood to give Goenkars a ‘New Dawn’ that they rightly deserve.
