Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: Goa Pradesh Congress Commitee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar alleged that BJP leaders have started trying to poach its candidates likely to win–an allegation the saffron party has dismissed as a sign of frustration.
“We have received information that Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho and Pramod Sawant and their brokers have started approaching our candidates who are likely to win and giving them offers,” said Chodankar
He further said that they are resorting to their old technique because they know their government is not going to last.
“I want to publicly warning them. This is a new Congress. Not a single worker will go,” he added
Chodankar further said that the election process is not even over, the counting of votes has not been done and if you dare to poach a candidate elected from another party, you will pay the price for that.
“The people of Goa will no longer tolerate this. This election was held on the ground that people will no longer support defection,” Chodankar said.
GPCC President said that not one of our candidates will be poached and that they are sure of all of them and we have taken the precautions.
“We are issuing this warning to make it clear they (BJP) should not dare to approach any of them with such offers,” he added
The Congress won 17 seats in the last Assembly election, in 2017. Two of its MLAs resigned in 2018, contested bypolls from their seats and won them for the BJP. In 2019, ten of the remaining 15 MLAs defected to the BJP in a contested “merger” of the two legislative parties.
Ahead of the polls held on February 14, three of the Congress’s five MLAs switched parties and its former chief minister Pratap Singh Rane decided not to contest the election.
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