A spat has broken out between the ruling BJP and its ally Goa Forward Party (GFP) over the latter's demand to install a statue of Dr Jack Sequeira in the Goa legislative assembly complex.
The state BJP's core committee, at a meeting last evening, passed a resolution against having any new statue, besides the existing one of Bhausaheb Bandodkar, the first chief minister of the coastal state, installed in the complex.
Dr Sequeira is considered to be the 'father' of a referendum in 1967 in which a majority of people of the coastal state voted against not merging with Maharashtra.
Senior BJP leader and former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar had criticised GFP chief and state minister Vijai Sardesai after the meeting. "Why was Vijai silent on the issue all these years? Why is he making an issue now?" he asked.
GFP's chief spokesperson Trajano D'Mello today alleged that Parsekar has a grudge against the GFP, as "many of his anti-people decisions (taken when he was chief minister) have been reversed by this government at the behest of Goa Forward Party."
Sardesai has always stood for "Goem, Goemkar and Goemkarponn" (Goa, Goans, and Goan-ness)", he said.
D'Mello also said that Sardesai's family was active in seeking the opinion poll of 1967, and therefore he has always supported honouring the "heroes of the opinion poll".
The BJP resolution yesterday said, "A large number of people have participated in the freedom movement, opinion poll, and the all-round development of Goa....the request for installing their statues in Vidhan Sabha complex is likely to come up...and therefore the BJP does not support the demand of installing any other statue (besides the existing statue of Bandodkar).
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