Thousands of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) workers on Sunday gathered in a chain to block Sadbuddhi (Good Sense) Yatra organised by the Congress at Sanquelim. The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) had organized the Sadbuddhi Yatra at Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s residence at Sanquelim at 5 pm, to pray for his mental health and enlighten him of his responsibilities.
GPCC with around 100 Congress 100 activists led by state unit president Girish Chodankar had planned to give flowers to the Chief Minister at his residence and protest over his statement on the Benaulim gang-rape incident. However, 2500 BJP workers decided to counter the protest march and gathered on the road leading to the Chief Minister’s residence.
The police had barricaded the Congress and BJP workers on both sides to maintain law and order but the atmosphere got tense after Congress workers were stopped by a strong police force.
The chaos went on for around two hours. Finally, the protestors were dispersed by the police. Bicholim deputy collector Deepak Vaigankar, SP, DySP Sandesh Chodankar and his team were present to prevent the situation from going out of control.
As the Congress workers were not allowed to proceed, the workers took to the streets and started chanting hymns like "Raghupati Raghav Rajaram Patit Pawan Sitaram .. Pramodak Sadbuddhi De Bhagwan .. Chalayank Samrakshan De Bhagwan". Congress leaders said they will file a complaint about the alleged manhandling of a lady party worker.