Goa Congress Chief Girish Chodankar addressing a press conference on Thursday
Gomantak Times
Goa Congress Chief Girish Chodankar on Thursday alleged that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is involved in a Rs 1,686 crore mining scam.
Speaking at a press conference in Panaji, Chodankar said that Pramod Sawant's focus was only on corruption and money laundering.
"Sawant has been involved in a mining scam of Rs 1,686 crore. We will expose the scam during Amit Shah's visit to Goa in the coming days," Chodankar said.
Chodankar said Congress has given the tickets to new faces for the Goa Polls. He also said that 30 candidates of Congress are new faces and about 18 candidates are facing Assembly elections for the first time.
"We have kept our promise not to give tickets to the MLAs who have defected, and we have given about 80 per cent new and young faces as per the demand of the people of Goa. We had promised the people of Goa that we would not directly or indirectly support the defectors," Chodankar
"People's demands are being met. We have kept our word and given young faces. We have represented all castes, religions and women in the selection process," he added.
Chodankar claimed that CM Sawant has conceded defeat and used false cases to gain an advantage in the elections. "Sawant is frightening our candidate Dharmesh Sagalani in his chain constituency and is therefore filing an unwanted FIR against him by abusing his power. Sawant has already lodged two FIRs against him and more are likely to follow. If he has the guts, let him file another FIR and send him to jail. But Dharmesh Sagalani will still win from the Sankhli," he said.
He further said, "BJP government had failed to take action against Dayanand Sopte on the charge of ransom and on the pornographic video made by Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavalekar. The BJP government is trying to create obstacles in front of Sankalp Amonkar, Dharmesh Sagalani and others. But we are not afraid. People will reject BJP candidates and our candidates will win," said Chodankar.
GPCC Vice President MK Sheikh, Vice President Altino Gomes, Media Department President Amarnath Panajikar and district president Vijay Bhike were also present at the press conference.
