Water and electricity may be keywords for the headline garnering Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in New Delhi, but in sun and fun soaked Goa, the local unit has decided to make a battle against casinos a keyword in its electoral strategy.
Addressing its first formal Press conference after the sensational victory for the party in New Delhi which led to the garnering of support from several civil society activists, the party has vowed to take up local issues that have been unresolved for years including that of the presence of casinos and real estate scams and the like.
“We will be against casinos. The way in which Goa is projected as a las Vegas is something sad and distressing,” Dr Oscar Rebello who had recently joined the AAP following its success in New Delhi. Goa has five operational offshore casinos and nearly a dozen onshore casinos, which attract hundreds of thousands of gamblers to the State annually.
The BJP, which was opposing casinos while in the Opposition continuously over seven years, had promised to “throw the casinos into the sea” before elections. However, after coming to power made in 2012, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the casinos would be relocated into the deep seas off Goa only towards the end of his term.
Though the newly formed Goa unit of AAP did not have the time to collectively put thought and crystalise the party’s agenda for Goa, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led coalition had left people “dejected and disappointed”, Rebello said. The party has also managed to garner the support of pop singer Remo Fernandes. The party, which plans to contest both the North and South Goa seats, said that issues like that narcotics and real estate lobbies would be on AAP radar, apart from other generic agendas like a strong lokayukta, public service guarantee and grassroots governance.