Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar Friday said the BJP was raising the issue of criminal cases against his party colleague and Panaji Assembly bypoll candidate Atanasio Monserratte as the ruling party could sense poll defeat.

Monserratte was booked for raping a girl in 2016 and also has other criminal cases registered against his name.

The Panaji bypoll is slated for May 19 and Monserratte is pitted against BJP's Siddharth Kunkolienkar.

"We had asked questions on the corruption in smart city project and also failure of the BJP to govern the constituency for last 25 years. But those questions are not being answered," Chodankar said.

He said the BJP, which has been hitting out at Monserratte, had inducted him in the Manohar Parrikar-led cabinet in 2002 and had made him chairperson of the Greater Panaji Planning and Development Authority in 2017.

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