We will win both Lok Sabha seats in Goa: CM Pramod Sawant

PANAJI: In a sharp attack on Congress candidates for

Lok Sabha elections

, chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said the Congress’s North Goa candidate Girish Chodankar will once again taste defeat after losing Fatorda and Panaji assembly elections, while the South Goa candidate

Francisco Sardinha

was denied ticket by his party in 2014 due to his inefficiency.


BJP has completed its first round of campaigning for

Lok Sabha

polls and the byelections systematically and we are 100% confident of winning all the five seats, Sawant told reporters.

He said BJP’s North Goa candidate and Union Ayush minister Shripad Naik is a good person and people are supporting him because of the work he has undertaken in the last 20 years in Goa as well as outside.

Sawant said if you look at Chodankar, it appears that Congress has not been able to find a appropriate candidate in the North.

“Congress has imported a candidate from South Goa to contest North Goa Lok Sabha elections, usually it doesn’t happen. He (Chodankar) has lost assembly elections in Fatorda and Panaji and he will get defeated at the Lok Sabha election too. Once again, he can contest byelection in Panaji, as they would be declared soon. We want Chodankar to contest from Panaji and we will defeat him again,” the chief minister said.

Naik will win with a huge margin, he said.

On Lok Sabha elections in South Goa, Sawant said incumbent MP Narendra Sawaikar is just 51 years, while Congress’s Sardinha is 74-year-old. He said Congress had denied him ticket for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. “Last time Congress had given ticket to dynamic Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco and made it clear that Sardinha is inefficient. So I don’t understand why he was given ticket again,” the chief minister said.

Sawant said Sardinha had not connected with the people during the last five years, whereas Sawaikar is well-connected with the people. “Sawaikar has utilised 100% of his MPLAD fund, whereas Sardinha’s 60% fund was unutilised. So I am confident that Sawaikar will retain the seat,” he said.

On the byelection in Mandrem, Sawant said, Congress and MGP are confused on whom to support. “MGP has supported Congress in

Mapusa

, I don’t know if Congress will support MGP or both will support an independent candidate in Mandrem. I don’t know if Congress candidate is being made a scapegoat. I heard that there is some fixing happening at the top level,” he said.

In Mapusa, former deputy chief minister Francis D’ Souza’s son Joshua will win the byelection and in Shiroda I have heard that there is some fixing, but we are confident that Subhash Shirodkar will win, Sawant said.