TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
CORTALIM/VASCO: Congress's Cortalim candidate Raymond De Sa has accused the Congress high command of deliberately pointing fingers at others, when they were solely responsible for his withdrawal from the election fray.
"How was Goa desk in charge J S Brar aware of the so-called withdrawal game-plan which was executed over a period of seven days and what action did he take to foil the plan? asked De Sa.
"I would also want to know that if they were aware of the game plan, why did the Congress not field a dummy candidate? Was it part of a setting with the BJP or was it that they could not find a candidate?"
“In fact, I have seen TV footage of the Congress and BJP MLAs inspecting a garbage dumping site at Taleigao on the day of my withdrawal, which only showed the importance that they (Congress MLAs) had for the Cortalim bye-poll," said De Sa.
Accusing Congress leaders of "habitually making statements for public consumption," De Sa challenged them to adduce any setting with the BJP or with anyone else.
Meanwhile, De Sa has stated that his business has nothing to do with his decision to withdraw from the elections.
Accusing Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho of dragging his business in politics, De Sa claimed that this was done to deflect public attention on real issues.  
Commenting on Godinho’s statement in a section of press that he (De Sa) had withdrawn due to issues pertaining to his dry dock, De Sa reminded Godinho that work on the dry dock had begun over a year ago and was within the framework of law.
“What was Godinho doing all this while if my dock was illegal,” De Sa sought to know.
"Unlike Godinho who has a tainted image, I am not involved in any scams. I don’t have any deal with the BJP. It is Godinho who made serious allegations against the BJP ahead of the assembly elections is now trying to befriend BJP leaders to save him from legal prosecution,” De Sa told Herald.