The Navhind Times Goa News
NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Taking a cue from the Congress party and Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, the Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday said that its lone MLA Churchill Alemao will move a private member’s resolution in the forthcoming budget session of the state legislative assembly demanding installation of a statue of Opinion Poll leader Dr Jack Sequeira in the vicinity of the assembly complex.
“I have submitted a notice on January 28 to the office of the state legislative assembly Speaker to move a private member’s resolution recommending installation of a statue of Opinion Poll leader Dr Jack Sequeira in the vicinity of the assembly complex,” Alemao said addressing media persons in the city in the presence of senior party leader Jose Philip D’Souza.
Expressing his confidence that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will support his resolution, Alemao urged political parties not to polarise and divert the issue on the ground of religions.
“We did not win the Opinion Poll only with the Catholics votes. In fact, a majority of the votes against the merger came from Hindus, as their
votes were more than 50 per cent of the total votes polled. There was also quite a good percentage of votes from Muslims, ” he maintained.
He claimed that supporters of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party also voted against Goa’s merger with Maharashtra.
Pushing the BJP to the wall over its stand on the statue issue, Alemao said, “We have 40 MLAs in the assembly representing different constituencies, but the leader of the House is one i.e. the Chief Minister of the state… we have a statue of Goa’s first chief minister in the assembly complex. So I want ask a question: why statues of the MLAs of the Opinion Poll time have not been installed?”
It is pertinent to note here that BJP leaders have said that it was not only Dr Sequeira who fought for the historic Opinion Poll. The BJP leaders have asked as why people are not seeking installation of statues of other leaders who fought for the Opinion Poll.
D’Souza said the BJP has formed the government with the support of Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardesai. Now it is the responsibility of the BJP to support him in this cause.
