PANJIM: Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said that giving tickets to Christian candidates during the ensuing polls was their strategy to reach out to the Catholic community in Goa which is very vibrant.
Talking to reporters during a press conference, BJP’s Goa desk in-charge Aarti Mehra said the party’s main thrust this election was to give representation to minority community
especially Christian, which constitutes almost 23 percent of the state’s total population.
She said that party through various means had made conscious effort to reach out to this community.
“Ever since I took over as secretary in charge of Goa, our main focus was to reach out to the 23 per cent vibrant Christian community here. It was my endeavour to meet opinion makers like catholic priests, teachers and members of the community all over Goa during my visits here,” she stated.
“According to our goal,” Mehra said “the party has directly or indirectly given 8 seats to Catholic community in the coming elections. We have not given just any seat but the ones where there is sizable minority population and seat is winnable for the party,” she claimed.
BJP, which is set to contest 28 seats, have allotted six party tickets to these community members including its sitting MLA Francis D’Souza (Mapusa), Michael Lobo (Calangute), Glen Ticlo (Aldona), Matanhy Saldanha (Cortalim), Carlos Almeida (Vasco) and Nilesh Cabral (Curchorem).
The party has also extended its support to independent candidates like Domnic Gaonkar (Curtorim) and Avertano Furtado (Navelim).
Further talking on dynastic politics, Mehra said that Congress party’s attempt to give away four tickets to one family has trigged negative response amongst its own supporters thus helping BJP.
“Our party has been very impressive as oppositions during the last five years. The current situation in Goa is in the favour of BJP, beyond our expectation. This can be attributed to Manohar Parrikar led Jansamparak Yatra and later to Congress inclination towards dynastic politics,” she said adding ‘party is confident of victory’.
