PANAJI
Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Saturday tried to insulate himself from the outsider-insider debate which has arisen after his open backing of Sancoale sarpanch Girish Pillai as the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for the Cortalim assembly seat.
Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Godinho also claimed that the minority vote would veer towards the BJP in the upcoming polls, because of the development work carried out by his government, while also adding minority votes would swing in the BJP's favour because people tend to vote for the winning side.
"Those who are doing the outsider, insider campaign, I do not feel there is a need to run this outsider, insider campaign. The one who has traction with the people, with the voter, the person will be elected. The BJP has not taken a decision on this yet. If a decision was taken, I would have made a comment. A decision has not been made," Godinho told a press conference here.
Godinho also mentioned the names two non-ethnic Goan elected representatives, who Godinho had said had a track record of good development works.
"In that constituency, there is a history, there was a deputy sarpanch called Nicholas Fernandes. His name was Nicholas Fernandes, but he too was from another state. And people accepted him, because he had done good work. People had accepted him," the Transport Minister said.
"In Chicalim, Kamala Prasad Yadav was a deputy sarpanch, most popular deputy sarpanch. I do not think this tag can apply. I do not want to comment because the party has not taken a decision on Cortalim," Godinho added.
The Transport Minister further said that it was unfair to level long staying residents of Goa as outsiders.
The Transport Minister however lashed out at parties like the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, which he said was bringing in "outsiders" to Goa by the drove.
"These people who are coming here and are trying to misdirect us using social media, modern techniques. There are posters and cut-outs wherever you go. This is a new culture which has been brought in. Goans should remember that there was post poll violence in Bengal. People are killed, stabbed. Do Goans want a culture of violence?" he said.
When asked if the minority community would choose to vote for the BJP this time round, Godinho said: "Minorities are slowly veering around the view that we need good development. We need inclusive growth. We also should be part of the development. I can say this with confidence. For the first time minority persons told me, we were not there last time (during the last polls). This time we are there".
"BJP has done good work. Slowly a large section of the minorities, which otherwise were perhaps not with us, have started to come to us in a big way. The wind is in BJP's favour. People like to be on the winning side. That's normal psychology," Godinho said.
