BJP slams Goa Cong’s ex-chief for OBC jibe

Margao: BJP OBC morcha on Thursday hit back at former Congress president Girish Chodankar for his comments against BJP that the party was using OBC community as its votebank and thus working against the welfare of the bahujan samaj.
Addressing a press conference at the party’s South Goa district office, Parag Raikar of BJP’s OBC morcha pointed out that several ministers in the state cabinet come from the OBC communities.
Refuting Chodankar’s charges that BJP was attempting to finish the political career of its OBC leader Shripad Naik, Raikar said that Naik is not only a prominent leader of BJP in Goa but that he holds a position of eminence at the central level.
Raikar said that 43 ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet are from the backward classes.
“The new cabinet of Prime Minister Modi is referred to as a rainbow panel that represents the aspirations of 130 crore Indians,” Raikar said, further pointing out that while the prime minister himself is from the OBC, President Droupadi Murmu is from a backward tribe. He said that 17 ministers in the Modi government belong to the OBC community, 12 are from SC category and eight from ST, while a significant number of ministers are professionals with many having PhDs and several holding MBA qualification.
Raikar demanded that Chodankar give an explanation over how BJP was working against OBC welfare as charged by him.
He said that the societal standard of OBC had risen after BJP came to office.