Work hard for next Goa Assembly poll win, Shah tells BJP workers

BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday exhorted his party's booth-level members to work hard to ensure that the National Democratic Alliance wins 35 of the 40 Assembly seats in Goa in the next state polls.

He said instability was an obstacle to Goa's development and assured that the BJP-led alliance government in the coastal state, which was sworn in in March last year, would last its five-year term.

"As BJP workers we have to make one resolve -- to end instability in Goa and only our booth-level workers can do it. The workers at the 1,600-odd booths should resolve that in 2019, we will not only win both seats (Lok Sabha) but when next Assembly elections are held, the NDA will win more than 35 of the total 40 seats," Shah said while addressing booth-level party workers at an indoor stadium near Panaji.

Shah's visit comes at a time when the Congress has claimed a constitutional crisis in the state and administration at a standstill due to the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is in the US undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Earlier in the day, Congress leaders protested against Shah's visit and demanded that he appoint a "full-time" Chief Minister in Goa at the earliest.

Shah also said that the court would be approached to resolve the impasse in the mining sector in Goa, after 88 mining leases were scrapped by the Supreme Court in February.

"There is a problem in the mining (sector) because of a court case. I do not want to speak much. All I say is that in a short time, we will find a way out of it through the courts," the BJP leader said.

--IANS

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