AAP marks Congress MLAs defection in 2022 with a 3rd anniversary celebration of BJP-Congress “wedding”

Goa Khabar : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Goa on Sunday marked the third anniversary of the defection of eight Congress MLAs to the BJP with a symbolic celebration of what it called the “BJP-Congress wedding” on 14th September 2022.

At a press conference in Margao, AAP leaders including Working President Valmiki Naik, General Secretary (Campaign) Sandesh Teleikar-Desai, Vice-President Roque Mascarenhas, and Spokesperson Pio Kevin, cut a “wedding anniversary” cake while launching a frontal attack on the BJP & Congress aimed to remind Goans of the betrayal and deceit.

“This was not the first time such en-masse defection of Congress MLAs had happened. Earlier we saw 15 out of the 17 Congress MLAs elected in 2017 jump to the BJP before the next election in 2022. Despite this, instead of taking strict measures, the Congress did nothing except mislead the people further with gimmicks such as taking a vow of non-defection at religious places, or making a charade of signing sworn affidavits of their loyalty”, Valmiki Naik charged.

Naik demanded to see the affidavits signed by the Cong candidates, stating that no such documents actually exist, and the exercise was just a photo-op with Rahul Gandhi.

“AAP candidates had not only signed loyalty affidavits, but had distributed copies of the same during their door to door campaign, so that any voter could file a case of perjury under Section 193 of the IPC against any AAP MLA who defected. If similar affidavits really existed with the Congress candidates as well, why didn’t Congress file a single such case against the defectors?“, Naik demanded to know.

Naik also recalled the infamous sting operation on 3 Congress candidates released before the 2022 election, and reminded the people that in one of the videos Mormugao candidate Sankalp Amonkar had already revealed the “setting” between the Congress candidates and the BJP to switch over after the election results under the leadership of Digambar Kamat.

AAP leader Teleikar-Dessai pointed to the recent statement by Delhi Congress chief Devendra Yadav admitting that Congress did not contest the Delhi elections to win, but only to defeat the AAP, and that the top Congress leadership approved of this strategy which was nothing short of an active collaboration with the BJP.

“Not only was this a strategic alliance between Congress and BJP, but the election expenditures officially declared recently show an even deeper connection between the two. The ruling party AAP spent only 14 crores, while the BJP expectedly spent a large amount 57 crores in the Delhi election, but the surprising part is that Congress spent a whopping 46 crores !!! Despite all polls showing that Congress would not win a single seat, it spent such a large amount. And what is even more damning, is that Congress shows that 44 crores out of the 46 crores was received by the party IN CASH. This proves beyond any doubt that Congress was very likely directly funded by the BJP in their combined bid to overthrow AAP”, Teleikar-Dessai alleged.

Curtorim leader Roque Mascarenhas said that such a “setting” between BJP and Congress seems to have already started for 2027 elections.

“A person who was recently inducted in the Congress party with great fanfare ostensibly as a challenger to Digambar Kamat, was openly supporting Narendra Modi and BJP in the Lok Sabha election. It looks like the Congress party takes Goans for fools if they are projecting compromised candidates so openly”, Mascarenhas stated.

Nuvem leader Pio Kevin appealed to the people of Goa to not be misled by the dirty backdoor politics of the BJP and the Congress.

“AAP MLAs have shown that politics in Goa does not have to be about betrayal and failures. Both our MLAs have not only stayed loyal to the party and their voters, but have also done more development as opposition MLAs than even the defectors who jumped ship in the name of development. It is time to have a full majority AAP Govt in Goa and for Goans to reap the benefits of the Arvind Kejriwal model of development”, Kevin appealed.