A week ahead of the results to the 40-seat Goa Assembly election, the Goa Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of tapping the phones of senior Congress leaders while claiming that the BJP is resorting to underhand tactics as it knew it would lose the election.
Pradesh Congress chief Girish Chodankar, speaking to reporters in Panaji, hit out at the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government for “misusing power” and snooping on the Congress leaders, including Assembly leader Digambar Kamat.
“The BJP is baffled by the voting trend which clearly shows that the saffron party will be sent home. So, it has hired an agency to hack the phones of the Congress leaders to find a way to come to power illegally,” alleged Mr. Chodankar, urging authorities to probe the matter and take suitable action.
He expressed confidence that the Congress and its ally, the Vijai Sardesai-led Goa Forward Party, would win more than 22 of the 40 Assembly seats.
The election, which was held on February 14, had witnessed a fierce multi-cornered fight, with regional parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the fray besides the Congress and the BJP.
Michel Lobo refutes rumours
Congress leader Michael Lobo, who contested from Calangute, rejected rumours that the BJP’s top leaders were in contact with him while stressing that the Congress would win absolute majority and would stake claim to form government on March 10 (day of results) itself by 5 p.m.
Mr. Lobo, a former BJP leader who was a Cabinet Minister before exiting the saffron party ahead of the polls, said the BJP was “a master in spreading such rumours” and that nobody ought to believe in them.
“All parties, even the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party [MGP] who spoke to us, said they will never go to the BJP… the BJP had ditched the MGP twice, in 2016 and 2019. So, the MGP leaders will never join the BJP again. Even the independents have assured us [the Congress] of their support,” claimed Mr. Lobo.
The MGP fought the polls in alliance with the TMC.
Prior to the polls, MGP leader Sudin Dhavalikar — the sole legislator of Goa’s oldest party — had vowed that he would never again align with the BJP, which had been its long–time ally in Goa.
The support given by the MGP and the GFP had been critical in helping the late Mahohar Parrikar in forming a BJP-led government after the 2017 Assembly election despite the Congress having emerged as the single-largest party by winning 17 of the 40 seats.
While the BJP had managed only 13 seats, the vacillating Congress had failed to seize the initiative which led the saffron party to form the government with the help of the GFP, the MGP and independent candidates.
In 2019, Mr. Sawant, new Chief Minister following Parrikar’s demise, had dumped both the GFP and the MGP.
The BJP’s hand was further strengthened following the defection of 10 Congress MLAs in July 2019, severely weakening it which shrivelled to just two MLAs ahead of this year’s election.
Despite the broad consensus among political analysts that Goa would again throw a fractured mandate, all major parties have predicted they would win absolute majority.
