Panaji, Jan 3 : People in Goa tend to change political parties as casually as they take a stroll in the park, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, said on Monday, urging the people of Goa to vote for the BJP with a sizeable majority in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Gadkari also said that in a minority government, legislators exact a price and put stability on peril.
“The people of Goa have good experience of stability and instability (in governance). I have said that people in Goa change parties like they are strolling casually in a park. This happens only in Goa. One loses track of who has quit which party and has gone where,” Gadkari said.
The Union minister was speaking in Panaji at the inauguration of the BJP’s central election office for the upcoming elections.
“And finally when (a party) has 15-16 MLAs and four to five MLAs are needed (to form a government), they start exacting a price. And in the process of meeting that price, instabulity is created. Because the MLAs say ‘do this or I will withdraw support’. Goa has experienced this too,” the Union minister said.
“Goa’s biggest strength has been its stable government and the double engine phenomenon with the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. That is why so many development works could be carried out,” he added.
Commenting on the entry of “new” political parties in poll-bound Goa, Gadkari said that such parties emerge on the scene like frogs in the monsoons.
“Many parties have surfaced in Goa like frogs during the rains. If you name them, one tends to give them credence,” Gadkari said.
“There are many leaders who want to test themselves on the national stage. But they do not have any value outside their states. The people of Goa know that if they do not give majority to one party and elect a few MLAs from all parties, a new game will be unleashed and Goa will be unstable and development will halt in every way,” he added.(IANS)