Vasco: Former Mormugao Municipal Council chairperson Leo Rodrigues, former deputy chairperson Ramchandra Kamat, and ex-councillor Damodar Naik, all elected on the BJP panel in the 2021 municipal elections, were seen participating in Congress’s Goy Rakhonn Yatra in Mormugao taluka. Rodrigues served as chairperson for one year, while Kamat served as deputy chairperson for three years.The yatra began in Chicalim, passed through the Dabolim and Vasco constituencies, and concluded in the Mormugao constituency on Friday evening.Rodrigues and Kamat alleged that BJP govt has failed to protect the interests of people in Goa and urged voters to defeat BJP candidates in the upcoming assembly election. Kamat said a change in govt was needed and claimed the BJP was better suited to the opposition.Both clarified that they had not joined Congress, stating they attended the yatra as a people’s movement to understand public sentiment and the plans being discussed against alleged corruption. Rodrigues said they wanted to hear people’s views and learn how they intended to respond to what he described as corrupt practices.NRI affairs commissioner Narendra Sawaikar criticised their participation and alleged that Goy Rakhonn Yatra was a “survival stunt” of Congress. Rebuffing Rodrigues and Kamat, Sawaikar said, “The views of Rodrigues and Kamat do not matter because people have full faith in BJP governance”.
