A former deputy chief minister in the Pramod Sawant government, Vijai Sardesai is confident the GFP-Congress pact is Goa’s best bet to send BJP packing. Speaking to TOI, he says the alliance will ensure the welfare of Goa even as he claims that TMC and AAP only have the 2024 national agenda on their minds. BJP has been facing strong anti-incumbency, but people still see a fragmented opposition. Don’t you think this has given BJP a big advantage?Yes, the Pramod Sawant government is perhaps the worst we’ve had in our history so the anti-incumbency is very strong. I agree that with so many opposition parties in the fray, there could be splitting of votes that would be an advantage for BJP. But I feel that the situation has changed dramatically in the last two-three weeks. Look at it this way. With the Congress-GFP alliance, what the people see is a strong, credible political force that can take on and defeat BJP. Now that it has come into place, the other parties have lost their significance. The vote they pull will be negligible. I strongly feel that anti-BJP votes will consolidate with our alliance. So, the advantage BJP thinks they have do not exist. For nearly a year, you have been speaking of the need for Team Goa to fight BJP. Now, GFP has only three seats and Congress the remaining 37. What went wrong?I don’t think anything went wrong. The most important thing is that we do have an alliance credible and powerful enough to challenge BJP. Of course, we would have liked more seats, we would have liked the alliance to have been formed earlier. But to us, removing BJP from power was the first priority and we have made some sacrifices to achieve that. The end result is that the fight is now clearly between our alliance and BJP and they are on the back foot. Things have gone right. Don’t you think there should have been a formidable opposition with a combination of more parties to defeat BJP?That’s the ideal scenario. In reality, it may not work out at all. And it didn’t in our case. But I feel that the people are getting reassured every day that our alliance is capable of defeating BJP even without the others joining in, and that faith is increasing day by day. There are too many parties in the fray and aggressively campaigning offering freebies. How does GFP/Congress propose to stop the division of votes with AAP and TMC vying for your vote share?Look at this from the people’s perspective. They want BJP out. This is non-negotiable for Goans. To make this happen, in a fragmented opposition landscape, they will vote for the party they perceive as the strongest to defeat BJP. That’s our alliance. TMC and AAP have demonstrated that they are here with a 2024 national agenda than a 2022 Goa agenda. Goans’ interest is to get BJP out and that desire is stronger than their desire for freebies from TMC and AAP. With our fresh faces, no-defector policy and unity, we’re emerging as the obvious choice in people’s eyes. According to you, how different is the 2022 election compared to the earlier ones?One is its importance for Goa. I have said that this is the second Opinion Poll. Never before have we faced such threats to every aspect of our lives and property as we are facing now from the Sawant government. For the first time, Goa is being used as a laboratory and Goenkars as guinea pigs as admitted by IPAC for their clients, TMC. BJP speaks of a “double engine” government and its slogan is on stability and infrastructure. Having been part of the BJP government for half the term, what are your comments on this?BJP’s biggest infrastructure projects are making mountains out of molehills. After Parrikar, it’s been nothing but talk. What infrastructure has Pramod Sawant initiated? The work under his tenure has been shoddy and substandard. There’re constant repairs on Atal Setu. All the MLAs who defected insist that they did so for development. What development has happened in their constituencies? Also, infrastructure is not everything. You can’t justify the corruption, the scams, the linear projects, the attempts to turn Goa into either a sin capital or coal hub by building a bridge.
BJP has been facing strong anti-incumbency, but people still see a fragmented opposition. Don’t you think this has given BJP a big advantage? Yes, the Pramod Sawant government is perhaps the worst we’ve had in our history so the anti-incumbency is very strong. I agree that with so many opposition parties in the fray, there could be splitting of votes that would be an advantage for BJP. But I feel that the situation has changed dramatically in the last two-three weeks. Look at it this way. With the Congress-GFP alliance, what the people see is a strong, credible political force that can take on and defeat BJP. Now that it has come into place, the other parties have lost their significance. The vote they pull will be negligible. I strongly feel that anti-BJP votes will consolidate with our alliance. So, the advantage BJP thinks they have do not exist. For nearly a year, you have been speaking of the need for Team Goa to fight BJP. Now, GFP has only three seats and Congress the remaining 37. What went wrong? I don’t think anything went wrong. The most important thing is that we do have an alliance credible and powerful enough to challenge BJP. Of course, we would have liked more seats, we would have liked the alliance to have been formed earlier. But to us, removing BJP from power was the first priority and we have made some sacrifices to achieve that. The end result is that the fight is now clearly between our alliance and BJP and they are on the back foot. Things have gone right. Don’t you think there should have been a formidable opposition with a combination of more parties to defeat BJP? That’s the ideal scenario. In reality, it may not work out at all. And it didn’t in our case. But I feel that the people are getting reassured every day that our alliance is capable of defeating BJP even without the others joining in, and that faith is increasing day by day. There are too many parties in the fray and aggressively campaigning offering freebies. How does GFP/Congress propose to stop the division of votes with AAP and TMC vying for your vote share? Look at this from the people’s perspective. They want BJP out. This is non-negotiable for Goans. To make this happen, in a fragmented opposition landscape, they will vote for the party they perceive as the strongest to defeat BJP. That’s our alliance. TMC and AAP have demonstrated that they are here with a 2024 national agenda than a 2022 Goa agenda. Goans’ interest is to get BJP out and that desire is stronger than their desire for freebies from TMC and AAP. With our fresh faces, no-defector policy and unity, we’re emerging as the obvious choice in people’s eyes. According to you, how different is the 2022 election compared to the earlier ones? One is its importance for Goa. I have said that this is the second Opinion Poll. Never before have we faced such threats to every aspect of our lives and property as we are facing now from the Sawant government. For the first time, Goa is being used as a laboratory and Goenkars as guinea pigs as admitted by IPAC for their clients, TMC. BJP speaks of a “double engine” government and its slogan is on stability and infrastructure. Having been part of the BJP government for half the term, what are your comments on this? BJP’s biggest infrastructure projects are making mountains out of molehills. After Parrikar, it’s been nothing but talk. What infrastructure has Pramod Sawant initiated? The work under his tenure has been shoddy and substandard. There’re constant repairs on Atal Setu. All the MLAs who defected insist that they did so for development. What development has happened in their constituencies? Also, infrastructure is not everything. You can’t justify the corruption, the scams, the linear projects, the attempts to turn Goa into either a sin capital or coal hub by building a bridge.
PANAJI: On being left with just two MLAs with the worst ever defections that Congress witnessed in Goa since 2017, it decided to go AAP way. On Friday, its 37 candidates in fray for the February 14 Goa Assembly elections, took a ‘loyalty pledge’ in the presence of Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi. Three candidates of Congress’ alliance partner, GFP also took the ‘loyalty pledge.’ In the 40-member Goa Legislative assembly, as a pre-poll alliance arrangement, Congress has shared three seats with GFP. The congress and GFP candidates vowed that they “will not defect” during their five-year term after being elected on their respective party tickets nor will they contest elections on another party symbol by resigning from their respective parties before their term ends. They will complete their full term and will serve the people of Goa with full honesty and loyalty. The signed affidavits were submitted to Congress leader Rahul to be presented to Congress national president Sonia Gandhi. The trend of making candidates sign affidavits to be faithful to the party they are elected on was started by AAP in Goa, but last month in its first attempt to keep the flock together, Congress also made its candidates take wow before gods of various faiths, stating they will not desert the party after the election for possible benefits for being with the ruling party. The AAP has been trying to make inroads into Goa, chiefly eying on Congress’ vote share, and one of its planks to win those votes in these elections has been that voting for Congress candidates is futile as anyways they will leave the party, once elected.
Panaji: BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade on Wednesday said that Congress and AAP can make its candidates take all the oaths in the world, but the oath at Raj Bhavan will be taken by BJP MLAs on March 10. Tanavade was reacting to AAP national convener Arvind Kejirwal’s announcement that his party candidates would give affidavit copies to all voters swearing not to defect on being elected. “We do not need to give any oath to our candidates. Our MLAs will take oath at the Raj Bhavan once our government is elected,” Tanavade said, adding that BJP will be elected with a simple majority and no ‘outside support’ will be required this time. “All of them know that BJP will be elected with a majority. If they were confident of forming the government would they have given such oaths to their MLAs? They fear that if one MLA is elected, they may try to merge their party. That is why Congress has also given its candidates such oaths. This time we will not require any outside support,” he said, adding that Congress will be reduced to single digits this time. “Prashant Kishore thought that putting up TMC posters everywhere will create an atmosphere favouring the party. But Goa is different. This poster baazi (poster-driven politics) does not work here. The minute posters are pulled down, people forget and that is what TMC has seen happening now,” Tanavade said. Praising the Union Budget, Tanavade said that infrastructure, tourism and organic farming in Goa will receive a boost. He said the Budget aims to encourage green projects, while also creating employment. “Optic fibre connectivity announced is the need of the future to go digital. We have seen how many students in Goa faced issues due to internet connectivity. Optic fibre connectivity will address this,” the BJP state president said.
PANAJI: The data being collected by TMC and the political management firm, I-PAC, could be misused and even sold to marketing and third party research companies, said Congress and GFP on Saturday. Congress and GFP have written to the Chief Election Commissioner and asked that all the data on Goan voters collected by I-PAC be seized. The two parties, which are fighting the Goa assembly elections in an alliance, said that I-PAC is collecting data using dubious means and by promising benefits under non-existent schemes. Congress general secretary Sunil Kawthankar and GFP general secretary Durgadas Kamat demanded an investigation into the collection of personal information of voters. “TMC claims that around 3 lakh women and more than 2 lakh youth have enrolled for these schemes. As it turns out, their exercise is not just an awareness drive for their 2022 election campaign. It is in fact a massive data collection drive where they will use this data of lakhs of Goans for purposes other than the current election,” Kawthankar said. Kamat said that I-PAC is paying volunteers Rs 800 for every 15 voters enrolled. “It is clear that TMC has come here to split votes and collect data. In Mayem, women have told us that they are being harassed to register. This data will be sold to various agencies for research and marketing,” said Kamat.
Staff ReporterPanajiThe Congress and Goa Forward Party on Saturday accused Trinamool Congress Party and Indian Political Action Committee I-PAC of collecting voters’ data through dubious means for perpetrating a larger “conspiracy”.Addressing a press conference in Panaji, general secretary of both the respective parties Sunil Kawthankar and Durgadas Kamat informed that they have filed a complaint in this regard with the Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi.They alleged that TMC and its I-PAC will use the data of Goans for purposes other than the current elections.“The manner in which they are misleading people and collecting their personal information warrants serious investigation. TMC has been going door-to-door giving women a card stating that they will get money once TMC comes to power. “While doing this process of issuing cards, they collect all the personal data of voters,” Kawthankar said, pointing out that TMC has claimed that around 3 lakh women and more than 2 lakh youth have enrolled for the schemes offered by them.“TMC is using Goa as an experiment and helping BJP to come to power. TMC will not win a single seat, they are here to divide votes and help BJP,” he added. Durgadas Kamat said that they will not allow TMC and IPAC to sell data of Goan voters.“Prashant Kishore who is associated with IPAC stated in a recent interview that they are following a model which will provide wealth of data and first hand information for Trinamool and IPAC to figure it out that if they have to go beyond and if they have to do a party at national level, what it takes,” Kamatsaid. He further said, “This means that the data collected from Goan women and youth in the name of schemes is used for purposes other than the scheme itself.” Both the alliance partners have demanded the ECI to take serious cognizance of the issue and seize all data collected by TMC and I-PAC immediately.
Panaji: Expressing concern over the huge data on Goan voters being collected by TMC and Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), GFP on Friday urged the Election Commission to look into TMC’s functioning ahead of the coming elections. GFP has also urged Goan voters to be wary about sharing data with unknown entities. GFP said that TMC and poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC are using the state assembly elections as a laboratory to gather data with no clear indication on how the data is stored or used. “Prashant Kishor says in this interview that TMC is in Goa to collect a wealth of data. Who’ll use the huge data I-PAC collected of lakhs of Goans through three non-existent schemes?” said GFP general secretary Durgadas Kamat. In an interview with a television channel, Kishor said that TMC is gathering “a wealth of data” from Tripura, Meghalaya and Goa to see what it takes if the TMC wants to expand its footprint nationally ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. GFP president Vijai Sardesai also questioned whether I-PAC is a campaign agency or a spying agency.
