Apprehensions about BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will persist, State Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza has said, adding that the church in Goa has only furthered the perception by asking the faithful to vote for secular candidates.
D’Souza, who is one of the earliest minority leaders who joined the saffron party in Goa more than a decade ago, said that the party had a lot to worry about when it came to how it was accepted among minorities. “Minorities will have an apprehension. It will always be there,” D’Souza said.
D’Souza was among the earliest senior BJP leaders in the State to have raised issues about the elevation of Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. Incidentally, his Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has been among the earlier supporters of Modi and is seen as a key partyman responsible for his rise.
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate has been known to be a hard-line right wing politics.
D’Souza also suggested that the influential Roman Catholic Church in Goa, which this time has clearly asked the faithful to vote for leader who take all communities along, could be responsible bringing the party’s communal traits back in the lime light.
The BJP had attempted an image makeover ahead of the State Assembly elections in 2012 by personally meeting church leaders as well as giving tickets to as many as six Catholic candidates, known to be unprecedented.
“There are six Catholic MlAs in the BJP. Why should we be called communalIJ” D’Souza said. The Goa Church is a significant player in Goa’s socio-political space with its Catholic population pegged at nearly 27 per cent. Goa, which goes to polls on April 12, sends two representatives to the lok Sabha.