Congress lodges complaint with EC against BJP

Panaji, May 31 (UNI) Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) today filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) here alleging that the BJP has brought in Rs 10 crore to woo voters ahead of the June 2 assembly elections.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress leader and party MP Shantaram Naik said he had told the Election Commission's office here that according to his information, the money will be used in the night time after the campaign ends today at 1700 hrs.

Since the Election Commission has all the powers to have neccessary investigations done through the police and other agencies and since it has its own observers, all neccessary steps should be taken to unearth the money, Mr Naik said in his letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).

Mr Naik demanded immediate action in this regard. He said he had also urged the CEO to re-consider its order making it compulsory to produce EPIC card at the time of voting. He said voters should be allowed to produce any of the 13 listed documents by the Election Commission as proof of their identity before exercising their franchise.

AICC general secretary Margaret Alva said the decision of the Election Office to detain water tankers at police stations yesterday on grounds that it violated the election code of conduct, was ''unacceptable''. The water tankers had been called by local elected representatives of South Goa because of shortage of drinking water after a pipeline had burst.

The Election Commission has disallowed display of party flags on the property of party workers and candidates. T-Shirts, caps, chairs for public meetings are also charged. ''In such scenario, how does a political party puts across its views to the people.

Newspaper ads were the only recourse,'' she added.

She also ridiculed BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy's demand for deploying CRPF in Goa on election day as ''ridiculous''.

''Elections in Goa have always been peaceful and not like Bihar which he is used to,'' she added.

Ms Alva alleged that Mr Rudy was using the services of Rajiv Talwar, a former IAS officer who served in Goa and is currently associated with a Delhi-based construction company. ''Mr Talwar is organising meetings of so-called opinion makers in the state with Mr Rudy. Is it because his company has been offered some lucrative deal if BJP comes to power here?'' she asked.

Replying to questions regarding presence of a senior party functionary and candidate in an election meeting of another party, Ms Alva said senior Congress leader and party candidate Dayanand Narvekar was requested not to attend the public meeting of his brother and JD (S) candidate Subhash Narvekar. She said possibility of disciplinary action against Mr Narvekar was not on her agenda at the moment. ''This is a stray incident,'' she added.

Ms Alva said the Congress campaign had gone off very well in Goa and the party was upbeat about coming to power again.

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