PANAJI: Former St Cruz MLA Victoria Fernandes, who represented the constituency for several terms, was an embodiment of ‘ladki hoon, laad sakti hoon’, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said while campaigning for Victoria’s son, Rodolfo, on Monday.
“His mother was an original fighter. As her son, he will keep the promises that she made to you,” Gandhi said at a public meeting in St Cruz.
She asked voters to make the ‘right’ choice to take Goa forward. “Power of the state belongs to you,” Gandhi said, adding that while exercising their franchise people should not think they are voting for BJP, Congress, TMC or AAP.
“Think you are voting to save the state from more destruction. Another five years of destruction, and you will not be able to bring it back. Goa is a jewel. We look towards you because you are a progressive state,” she said.
Goa’s unemployment rate ranks second in the country despite the state having all resources, capabilities and educated youth, Gandhi said.
The voters, she said, should seek an explanation from the BJP government as to why in the last 10 years of its governance prices of essential commodities have gone up so high and why the economy is on the verge of collapse.
“We will not allow diesel and petrol prices to go beyond Rs 80 per litre,” Gandhi said as she listed the various assurances in the party’s manifesto released last week.
She said BJP has been trying to enforce its ideology on Goa. “There is no space for the voice, culture or identity of Goa in the ideology of BJP. It is very clear. When they talk of governing Goa, they want to impose outside ideas,” Gandhi said.
She appealed to the people to vote for a stable government, which only Congress can deliver, she said
Gandhi also held a door-to-door campaign in Panaji where former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes is contesting from. She visited a few houses at Mala and had brief conversations with residents, introducing them to Gomes and distributing the party’s manifesto. She also campaigned in St Andre and Cumbharjua constituencies.
