By IANS,
Panaji : Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, himself accused of involvement in a mining scam, Saturday charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with pandering to the mining lobby in Goa and fielding candidates linked to it.
Speaking at a public rally — presided over by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Margao, 35 km from Panaji, Kamat said the BJP had given five tickets to people linked to the mining industry.
“They are accusing me of illegal mining. The BJP has given five tickets to people in mining,” Kamat said.
The BJP has now given tickets to Subhash Faldessai (Sanguem), Nilesh Cabral (Curchorem) and Ganesh Gaonkar (Sanvordem), all three of them mining contractors.
BJP has also supported alliance partner Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party’s (MGP) candidate Dinar Tarcar (St Cruz), who has been indicted in a major mining scam in leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar’s draft report of the public accounts committee (PAC).
Senior BJP leaders had earlier accused Kamat in a Rs.25,000 crore illegal mining scam, which is already being probed by a judicial commission led by Justice M.B. Shah. The Shah panel is also investigating illegal mining in other parts of the country.