Addressing the media, AAP Goa State President Valmiki Naik stated that the Ponda by-election was necessitated following the demise of late Ravi Naik, but internal political dynamics within BJP played a crucial role in the eventual cancellation. He alleged that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was reluctant to field Ritesh Naik but did so under pressure and fear of backlash from the people of Goa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Valmiki Naik further alleged that BJP was caught in a political dilemma, it did not want to lose the Ponda seat, yet did not want Ritesh Naik to emerge as a MLA. He claimed that to secure its political interests on both fronts, BJP conspired to get the election cancelled. He pointed out that similar cases have arisen in courts earlier, yet elections have proceeded, raising serious questions about the timing and intent in this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He further revealed that the petitioner in the case has known links with BJP and is a close ally and supporter of Apurva Dalvi and that even the Goa government, which was a respondent in the matter, had its Advocate General arguing in favour of the petitioner, clearly exposing the larger conspiracy. He stated that BJP leader Deepak Dhavalikar himself has acknowledged the petitioner\u2019s association with BJP, strengthening AAP\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Valmiki Naik said that the biggest victims of this conspiracy are the people of Ponda, who have now been left without an MLA and without a voice for potentially a year. He accused BJP of attempting to misuse state machinery, including reviving cases against AAP candidate Geetesh Naik to defame and politically intimidate him. He assured that AAP will stand firmly with the people of Ponda and continue to raise their issues. He added that the manner in which democracy has been undermined will be remembered, and the people of Goa will respond decisively in 2027 and throw BJP out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n AAP candidate Geetesh Naik stated that the party received an overwhelming and positive response from the people during the campaign, which clearly reflects the dissatisfaction with BJP\u2019s 14 years of governance in Ponda. He highlighted the poor state of healthcare infrastructure, stating that despite having facilities like the ID Hospital, patients are routinely referred elsewhere due to lack of proper equipment and services\u2014an issue that the government has consistently ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geetesh Naik further stated that BJP has compromised its ideology by inducting leaders from other parties and prioritising political convenience over governance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He pointed out that attempts were made within BJP to secure a ticket for Apurva Dalvi but had to be given to Ritesh Naik with the fear of backlash. The petitioner, Pritam Harmalkar, who is a a BJP\u2019s member. Referring to statements made by Deepak Dhavalikar, he reiterated that the petitioner\u2019s political affiliations are no secret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cDemocracy has been murdered in Ponda; people have been deliberately left without a voice just because BJP knew it was loosing\u201d ~Valmiki Naik \u201cA BJP-linked and close ally of Apurva Dalvi filed a case to cancel this election, people can clearly see the political game being played by the BJP.\u201d\u2013 Geetesh Naik Goa Khabar:“Aam Aadmi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25169,"featured_media":111285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[3924,3794,38],"class_list":["post-111284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-155","tag-aap","tag-featured","tag-goa"],"read":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111287,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111284\/revisions\/111287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG-20260409-WA0437-1024x548.jpg\")
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