MARGAO: Cuncolim MLA Clafasio Dias said on Sunday that the 2022 assembly election would be his last, and that he would contest only on a BJP ticket. If he is denied the ticket, he said, he wouldn't contest the polls.
“Whether I win or lose, this will be my last election,” he said. “I am confident the people will elect me once again, as party affiliation doesn’t matter to most of my voters.
“People have seen the development work I have done in my constituency after joining BJP, and I am confident people will repose faith in me as BJP candidate.”
Dias was among the 10 turncoat MLAs from Congress, led by deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, who switched over to BJP in July 2019.
Dias said that the only condition he had put forth before the BJP leadership for joining the saffron party was “jobs and development”.
“I suffered a lot when I was in Congress, as all my development project-proposals would get blocked,” Dias said, and accused GFP president and then TCP minister Vijai Sardesai for putting hurdles in his development plans in a bid to promote former Congress minister Joaquim Alemao’s son Yuri as its candidate from Cuncolim.
“After joining BJP, chief minister Pramod Sawant has helped me bring about a lot of development work in my constituency. I have completed almost 80% of the development work I had promised the people in my election manifesto. I am sure I will also be able to provide jobs to the youth of my constituency soon.”
Dias also said that he, along with some other Congress-turned-BJP MLAs, had been approached by NCP’s sole MLA, Churchill Alemao, to join NCP, which, he said, he rejected.
Dias, contesting as a Congress candidate in the 2017 polls, trounced Joaquim, who contested as an independent.