Headlines
'Ghar wapsi, nun gang rape affected Goa panchayat polls result'
Panaji, March 21
Ghar wapsi (homecoming),
slander against Mother Teresa, attacks on minority institutions and the
gang rape of a nun in West Bengal, could have resulted in the BJP-led
ruling coalition performing below par in the Goa zilla panchayat polls,
the convenor of a ruling coalition partner has claimed.
Mickky
Pacheco, convenor, Goa Vikas Party (GVP), one of the two parties which
the BJP joined hands with for the polls, claimed without taking names
that certain "religious leaders" canvassed against the BJP, which led to
the coalition barely scraping through in the South Goa zilla panchayat
and falling one short of victory in North Goa.
"These issues were
prominent. Ghar wapsi, the gang rape of a nun, the manner in which
Mother Teresa's image was attacked and other incidents played on the
minds of voters and the opposition exploited it," Pacheco told IANS on
Friday, after his party won only two seats in South Goa where the
Catholic vote was crucial.
Catholics account for 26 percent of the state's population.
Pacheco,
minister for archives and archaeology in the Goa cabinet, said some
religious leaders also issued diktats against voting for the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) for the party's silence on "atrocities" against the
minority community in several parts of India.
"I am going to
discuss this with the BJP. But we will of course continue with the
alliance because the GVP has a development agenda for Goa," Pacheco.
Out
of the two zilla panchayats, spread equally over 50 constituencies, the
BJP and its coalition partners, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and
the GVP, narrowly scraped through in the South Goa zilla panchayat
winning 13 of the 25 seats.
In North Goa, considered a bastion of
the BJP, the ruling alliance won only 12 seats of 25 and will require
the support of at least one Independent candidate to rule the North Goa
zilla panchayat.
The Congress as well as the Nationalist Congress
Party boycotted the polls after the BJP-led coalition government
decided to hold elections on political party lines last month.
The
lacklustre performance has also triggered dissent within the BJP with
Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza on Friday blaming the party
leadership for failing to deliver a clear victory.