'BJP lured Raymond D'Sa, Borkar with money, posts' TNN | May 24, 2012, 03.49AM IST
PANAJI: There seems to be no end to the Congress party's woes. Two days after the party's candidate for the Cortalim byelection Raymond D'Sa withdrew his candidature to enable the BJP candidate to win unopposed, Congress party spokesman Jitendra Deshprabhu said that a Congress MLA helped D'Sa to withdraw his nomination. He refused to reveal the name of the MLA, saying he was "waiting for the MLA to come forward with the real story" but said a prima-facie report had been sent to the high command and a detailed report would be sent in three-four days. Addressing mediapersons, Deshprabhu said D'Sa had been paid 2 crore by a prominent industrialist at the behest of the BJP for his withdrawal . Attacking the BJP for engineering the unopposed election of its Cortalim candidate, Alina Saldanha, Deshprabhu said "the Congress feels that under the BJP regime, democracy has been undermined". He claimed D'Sa is trying to buy the support of four panchas of the Cortalim-Quelossim panchayat to enable him to become the sarpanch and legalize illegalities, including his dry dock which does not have an environment clearance. Deshprabhu said, "I believe it (withdrawal) is a blessing in disguise. He (D'Sa) would have been a bad MLA. He has been removed from the party for life." Refuting D'Sa's claims that Congress leaders were not backing his candidature, Deshprabhu said Congress leaders repeatedly tried to contact D'Sa on his cellphone but it was be switched off. Taking aim at the other candidate who withdrew from the fray, he alleged that UGDP candidate Ramakant Borkar- who has been elected in the recently concluded panchayat elections-has been promised the post of the sarpanch in Sancoale, the richest panchayat in the state, by the BJP. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/BJP-lured-Raymond-DSa-Borkar-with-money-posts/articleshow/13422214.cms
