GFP a ‘silent supporter’ of BJP candidates: Vijai

NT NETWORK

Panaji

Maintaining that the workers of Goa Forward Party  and those of the Bharatiya Janata Party  “cannot gel with each other”, and therefore, it would not be fair to ask the GFP workers to campaign for the BJP candidates, Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai on Thursday said that his party however is a ‘silent supporter’ of BJP candidates.

“One should note that we are not opposing the BJP candidates in any way,” he added, quipping that one’s silence is always taken as his consent.

Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’, the GFP president said the GFP and BJP workers were rivals during the state assembly election.

“And then, the BJP has its cadre-based networks in place, wherever its candidates are contesting the election,” he observed, pointing out that unnecessary intrusion by GFP workers would mean duplication in the BJP’s campaigning.

Sardesai also stated that the alliance partners in states like Bihar and Maharashtra shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the BJP’s campaign, as these parties were contesting the polls with the BJP, in respective states, under seat sharing arrangement.

“However, here in Goa, the GFP is not contesting on any seat – either at the Lok Sabha election or in the three bypolls – and therefore, my presence at the April 10 Goa meeting of the Prime Minister would have no justification,” he maintained, while clarifying his absence at the Modi’s meeting in Goa. When asked about the participation of Independent

MLA and Minister for Art and Culture, Govind Gaude in the campaign of the Shiroda candidate of the BJP, the Deputy Chief Minister said that Gaude is an enthusiastic person as well as has some motive behind his participation in the Shiroda campaign.