Congress senior leader claims no 'Form B' issued for Fatorda; candidate says received it from party president
Photo Credits: Fatorda Package
Digvijaya Singh says
'no Fatorda for Cong'
>> See pg 3
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Suspense and drama unfolded in the Congress camp on Wednesday noon after Fatorda block Congress committee president Joseph Silva filed his nomination papers for the Fatorda seat from two different party banners -- Congress and Goa Vikas Partys.
Given the unusual situation, that the candidate has filed two nomination papers from different parties and that a senior Congress leader claimed that no B form was handed over to Joseph, all eyes are now on the office of Returning Officer Uday Prabhudesai during the scrutiny scheduled for Thursday morning.
The entire drama got an added twist after the Congress block president filed his second nomination paper on the Goa Vikas Party headed by President Lyndon Monteiro.
While Joseph attached the B form duly signed by the Congress president, party senior vice-president MK Sheikh, however, told The Goan later in the evening that the party had not issued the B form to Joseph. On the other hand, Joseph told the media that he had collected the form from the residence of State Congress President Luizinho Faleiro before he along with Congress members headed to Returning Officer Uday Prabhudesai to file his nomination. “I have given B Forms to 36 candidates cleared by the party leadership. Fatorda is not included in the list of 36 candidates and hence no B Form was given to Joseph Silva,” MK Sheikh told The Goan.
After filing his nomination paper, Joseph told the waiting media outside that he has filed his papers from Congress party after he got the Form B from the party president. “I got the B Form from my party president Luizinho Faleiro. My president gave me the B Form, which I have attached to my nomination paper,” he told the media.
In fact, Joseph thanked AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh and GPCC Chief Luizinho Faleiro for placing the recommendation of the Fatorda block before the Congress High Command to nominate a ST candidate for the Fatorda seat. “Fatorda has a huge chunk of ST community, which decides the winner in any election. The STs play a major role in Fatorda and the block had demanded that a representative of the community be nominated for the seat,” he said.
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As precaution, filed
two different party
nominations: Silva
Fatorda Block Congress president Joseph Silva said he had preferred to file nomination papers on the Congress and the Goa Vikas party since he had a strong suspicion that a section of the Congress leadership would ditch him at the eleventh hour.
“Our local leaders including Party president, Luizinho Faleiro, Secretary Dr Chella Kumar, AICC secretary Girish Chodankar and others were all for the nomination of a ST candidate for the Fatorda seat. But, leaders such as AICC general secretary in-charge of Goa, Digvijai Singh were all trying to accommodate Vijai Sardessai for Fatorda for various reasons,” he sid.
Joseph pointed out that he had approached the Goa Vikas Party and got their nomination for the Fatorda seat as a matter of abundant caution. “I knew that certain congress leaders will go out of the way to get me out of the fray just to accommodate Vijai. Hence, I approached the GVP and filed my papers on the GVP party banner”, Joseph said.
When asked to comment on reports doing the rounds that his candidature may be disqualified for filing nomination papers on two political parties, Joseph said he has been given to understand that there’s no provision to get a candidate disqualified for filing nomination papers on two parties.
Piedade Norohna said that the Congress leaders should have the wisdom and rally behind the congress grass root workers.
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Silva to withdraw
if GFP pulls out
4 of its candidates!
In an interesting development, Congress Secretary and spokesman Avinash Tavares has said that Joseph Silva is ready to voluntarily withdraw from the fray if the Goa Forward Party gets Jayesh Salgaokar (Saligao), Independent candidate, Cipru Cardozo (Navelim) and Anthony Rodrigues (Velim) out from the fray.
He said a delegation of the Fatorda block Congress workers on Wednesday evening called on Faleiro and informed him that Joseph is willing to withdraw from the fray if the Goa Forward leadership gets Jayesh, Cipru and Anthony out of the fray. “Otherwise, Joseph will not withdraw since he has got the valid B form from the party president,” he said.
Tavares further said that those who say that a candidate is liable for disqualification if he files nomination papers on two party names should cite the relevant provisions to substantiate their statement.
