Congress wrongly portraying BJP as communal: Chandrakant Kavlekar

PANAJI: Goa deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar has accused the Congress of wrongly projecting the BJP as a communal party.

In an interview to PTI, Kavlekar asserted that the BJP is committed towards development and takes along everyone.

Kavlekar was among the 10 Congress MLAs who switched over to the BJP in July this year. He was later inducted into the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet and appointed deputy chief minister of the coastal state.

"I spent 22 years of my political career in the Congress. Its leaders are always busy spreading wrong notion about the BJP that it is a communal party. They keep hammering this thought in the minds of their leaders," he alleged.

Kavlekar said when he and his nine other colleagues, including eight from Christian faith, joined the BJP earlier this year, they saw a different picture than what was portrayed by the Congress.

"We were welcomed instantly. The BJP is not communal, but a party that takes along everyone. It is a pro-development party," the former leader of opposition in Goa assembly said.

Kavlekar said some leaders in the Goa Congress unit were busy fulfilling their "own interests" due to which the party was unable to form government in 2017, despite it then emerging as the single largest party in the state polls.

The Congress won 17 seats while the BJP bagged 13 in the 40-member House after the assembly polls in 2017.

However, the BJP managed to form government with the support of regional outfits like the Goa Forward Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Independents.

"Some senior leaders in the Congress, who have enjoyed their share of power, are unwilling to let others prosper," Kavlekar alleged.

He said all the 10 MLAs who shifted from the Congress to the BJP will continue their affiliation with the saffron party "till their political retirement".