MAPUSA: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday slammed the BJP government over “a decade of failed promises” and vowed to rectify the damage done by the BJP once the Congress government is voted to power.
Addressing the media at the North Goa District Congress Committee office at Mapusa, Patole said that it is the Congress government’s decisions of their rule between 2007 to 2012 is what has helped Goa survive during the last ten years.
“I was in the Sanquelim assembly constituency yesterday. While going door to door in Sanquelim and addressing Congress meetings, I am now convinced that even the sitting CM is going to lose his election,” Patole said.
“What the people told me is important. It shows how the BJP is poised for defeat in Goa. The BJP candidate is the incumbent Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. People there say that he had a Wagon-R car. He was a veterinary doctor and he was a poor person. Where did he get so much money from? Our mines have stopped, our vehicles are out on the roads. We have sold our gold to pay off the loans. We are without food, therefore we get a true picture of the BJP now. People there have resolved to defeat the sitting Chief Minister,” Patole said.
“The people of Goa have decided that the Congress will be given a choice again. They are saying that there is no option other than the Congress,” he said.
Referring to the Union budget tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Patole said that the budget offered nothing new but only continued with the Modi government’s tradition of helping his crony friends while simultaneously selling off the national assets.
“In the budget he is only thinking about his crony friends and how he can sell state assets. Nothing for unemployment, for the small business, for the poor and the farmers. This is the budget,” he added.
Referring to the situation in Goa, Patole said that he has sensed that the people of Goa have resolved to unseat the BJP from power after ten years of false promises.
“Nearly 850 persons died during the Covid pandemic due to lack of oxygen. These are not deaths, these are murders,” he said.
“In Goa jobs are given to people only among the friends and family of the ministers and the rest among those who can pay a bribe. So the PCC has decided that all the jobs given through corruption will be cancelled and the jobs will be given to those who deserve it,” he added.
“Whether it is tourism, or mining, Goa is a state of unemployment. Tourism has been impacted in a big way. Goans have resolved that the Congress is the only solution. Regional parties which are in the fray are an attempt to split the Congress vote, people realise that. If one votes for them, the BJP will come back to power,” he added.
Also speaking on the occasion Goa Congress leader and former Union Minister of Law Ramakant Khalap hit out at the BJP for ruining the mining industry in the state.
On mining now they are saying they will start in six months. What were they doing for the last ten years? They are saying that there was a Rs 35,000 crore mining scam. But where is the scam? Is there even a PAC report that Parrikar was claiming is there?” he asked.
Earlier North Goa Congress president Vijay Bhike welcomed Patole to Mapusa and for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet the people.
He has learnt of the situation in Goa having visited five constituencies and has also been speaking to the people of Maharashtra who used to work in Goa, on how the situation here has changed for the worse. “Earlier jobs were available, security was better but now the security for the workforce was adequate and how they are saying the situation has changed now,” Bhike said.
The press conference was led by North Goa Congress President Vijay Bhike accompanied by Vice President Dr Pramod Salgaocar, Former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap, All India Minority Cell Vice President Anil Thomas, Mapusa Block president Sashank Narvekar Mahila President Pratiksha Khalap and others.
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