Will win North seat with 1L+, South by over 60k votes: BJP

Panaji: With campaigning for Lok Sabha elections ending on Sunday, BJP said that it will win the North Goa seat with a margin of over 1 lakh votes, whereas it will secure the South Goa seat with a margin of over 60,000 votes. BJP said that the absence of Congress national leaders in Goa during the campaign phase clearly indicates that Congress has already accepted defeat.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that it is unfortunate for Congress that their leader Rahul Gandhi comes to Goa to take puppies home, but not to campaign for party candidates.
"Rahul Gandhi comes here to take puppies. But he does not come for the campaign. It is unfortunate for them. Gandhi has not clicked one photo with his party leaders, forget about their karyakartas. When he had gone to Aldona, Gandhi took puppies and clicked a photo with the two owners of those puppies. But he didn't click a photo with Aldona Congress MLA," Sawant said.
He said that Congress has created fear in the minds of the electorates in Salcete. "Nobody should divide the society on the lines of religion. Goa is known as a model state in the country. There has been religious harmony among Hindus, Christians and Muslims and it should continue. It should not be disturbed due to politics," the CM said.
BJP has fielded Union minister for state Shripad Naik as their North Goa candidate and Pallavi Dempo as candidate from South Goa.
Sawant said that this election is to elect the Prime Minister and not a panchayat or municipal election or to elect a panch or councillor. He said that before elections, Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor visit an astrologer. "Last time Gandhi went to an astrologer who told him that he would win in Amethi, but it went wrong. He then changed his astrologer and went to Wayanad. Now his astrologer has told him that he will lose from Wayanad, that is the reason he has moved to Rae Bareli. We don't require astrologers," he said.
Sawant said that for the first time he has visited nook and corner of Salcete and realised that the condition of the minorities especially from the ST and SC community is very bad.
"I appealed to them to approach govt and assured them that govt will help them. We will reach out to them, and they should have a positive approach towards us," the CM said.
Reacting to the announcement of support by the ST community to Congress candidates, Sawant said, "It is not a ST community organisation. Two people claiming that doesn't mean they represent the entire ST community. Leaders from all ST communities are with BJP and BJP has given them justice. Congress has fooled them by announcing the next chief minister from ST community."
BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said that Congress has already accepted defeat even before voting as none of their senior leaders visited Goa to campaign for the elections.
Reacting to Congress' allegation that BJP failed to give justice to OBCs, the North Goa candidate said that state govt has increased reservation for the OBC from 19% to 27% in 2014. "BJP has given the country a Prime Minister from the OBC community. BJP elected me for five terms, and they will also elect me for six terms," Naik said.