The BJP in Goa on Monday romped to victory in the two bypolls in Goa, with both Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane defeating their nearest rivals from the Congress to win the Panaji and Valpoi Assembly constituencies respectively.
According to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who with his victory formally entered the State legislative Assembly, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had to battle below-the-belt campaign by the Opposition as well as a Church-backed organisation, which he said aimed at creating a divide among the communal harmony-loving Goan community.
“All methods were tried, legal, media, social media and bad publicity. Even to the extent that two days before elections, some organisation released an untrue fact-finding report. I am calling it untrue, because you will realise why in the coming days, because Government goes by the police investigation...” Parrikar told a Press conference on Monday soon after his victory was announced by poll officials.
Parrikar, now a six-time Panaji MlA and former Defence Minister was referring to a “fact-finding” report, which was based on a fact-finding committee of personnel from the Council for Social Justice and Peace, an NGO, which is directly linked to the influential Roman Catholic Church in Goa and Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, a Mumbai-based NGO.
The report castigated the Goa Police and the State administration for making shambolic attempts to get to the bottom of a series of desecrations of Catholic Crosses, other icons and Hindu places of worship in the State in recent months. The report also claimed that minorities were being subtly targeted and the fact that the two person arrested for the desecrations were mentally unsound was too much of a coincidence.
Parrikar, however, said that it was necessary to stay alert against elements trying to create a divide in Goa.
“During Ganesh Chaturthi, all Catholics and Muslims visit us and we also visit them during Christmas. I condemn the fact that it was for the first time, that our opponents tried to create differences. But the people of Goa taught them a lesson... Such forces will try to divide people. We will have to be alert,” Parrikar said.
Earlier, in the day, Parrikar led an open-jeep rally throughout Panaji, after his victory against the Congress candidate Girish Chodankar. While Parrikar got 9,862 votes, Chodankar won 5,059 votes. The Goa Suraksha Manch candidate Anand Shirodkar, who during the campaign had personally targeted Parrikar and the BJP won only 220 votes. The Manch is mentored by former State RSS chief Subhash Velingkar.
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane won the Valpoi Assembly by-poll by a whopping margin of 10,066 votes, defeating his nearest rival Roy Naik of the Congress.
Rane claimed that a mining company owner had tried to destabilise his campaign, but had failed miserably.
“I was very sad that some mine owners (have) played a role against me in this election,” Rane said.
The by-polls were necessitated after Parrikar’s return to State politics earlier this year, to head the BJP-led coalition Government and Rane’s quitting the Congress to join the BJP-led coalition Government as Health Minister.
The Congress has blamed “electoral terrorism” unleashed by the BJP for its loss.
“The BJP used the Government machinery to the fullest and were indulging in ‘electoral terrorism’ against its opponents. We condemn this completely,” Congress State president Shantaram Naik told The Pioneer.
The two wins take the legislative tally of the BJP to 14 and with nine ruling coalition allies, Parrikar believes that BJP-led coalition Government now had a comfortable majority.
“There was no stress on the Government, but obviously numbers count in democracy and governance. So now it is 14 plus three plus three plus three. So it is 23 strong and the Government’s moral strength has increased because of a strong result. The Government is now endorsed by the people of the State,” Parrikar said, adding that he was not looking to lure any Congressmen to the BJP ranks, as indicated in a section of the media recently.