PANAJI
St Cruz MLA Rudolf Fernandes, who all along said that he was not leaving the Congress, surprised many as he was among the 8 MLAs who switched sides to join the BJP on Wednesday.
By doing so, Fernandes has ensured that history got repeated in St Cruz for one more time as during the last term, it was former MLA Tony Fernandes who had left Congress to join BJP along with nine others.
During that time, Rudolf had criticised Tony for not taking the people into confidence while switching sides.
This time, Rudolf is at the receiving end as the people have questioned whether the MLA consulted the 8,000 voters who got him elected on a Congress ticket.
“Did the MLA consult the 8,000 voters who elected him to Congress?” questioned Peter Gonsalves from Santa Cruz.
Gonsalves further chided the statement of Rudolf that he has gone for development.
“Earlier too, Tony had said the same thing but no development happened. Now too, this MLA is saying the same thing. But in reality, it is not the development of the constituency but personal development which is the reason behind such switch,” Gonsalves added.
Michael Dias, another local from Merces, expressed disgust at the happenings and said Rudolf’s political career would meet the same fate as that of Tony.
“Tony’s political career was finished when he joined BJP. So too will be the fate of Rudolf,” Dias stated.
On the vow taken before various Gods, Dias said that such politicians do such drama to fool the people. “They have no fear of any God,” he said.
A local from Chimbel and TMC spokesperson Ana Gracias said the Congressmen have sold their souls to the devil by bribing Gods.
“But they will never prosper,” Gracias added.
Gracias further alleged that the Congress MLAs have land grab or other cases against them, due to which they switched sides to save themselves from getting exposed.
She also challenged MLA Fernandes to show how many job seekers came to him asking for jobs, and to tell the people how many jobs are reserved for the MLA.
Meanwhile, The Goan made several attempts to contact MLA Fernandes but without success.
However, earlier in the day, Fernandes told reporters that he has joined BJP to get jobs for the youth.
