Non-BJP parties in Goa move to get Sequeira statue installed

Political parties in Goa, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party, have begun efforts to get a proposed private member resolution, on installing a statue of Jack Sequeira in the Assembly complex, passed in the upcoming Budget session of the legislative assembly.
The Congress, which is the main opposition party in the assembly, has resolved to move a private member resolution demanding installation of the statue of Sequeira, a fatherly figure who spearheaded a movement to stop Goa from merging with Maharashtra during the historic 1967 Opinion Poll.
Goa Forward Party (GFP), which is in an alliance with the BJP in the state government, has indirectly supported the Congress.

"The step taken by the Congress to move a resolution in favour of installing the statue of Dr Jack Sequeira in the assembly is welcome," GFP president Vijai Sardesai reacted.
But taking a dig at the Congress, he said, "At the same time it speaks volumes of the unpardonable apathy that their leaders have shown towards Goan-born leaders and Goa-centric issues despite being in power for decades."
"It is not about moving resolutions and doing lip service to the cause but to actually ensure that the statue is erected, for which the Goa Forward Party would move every possible forum and convince one and all," Sardesai said.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which has a single legislator in the assembly, has supported the Congress.

NCP Goa unit president Jose Philip DSouza said that his party would support the Congress, adding that Sequeira's statue needed to be installed in the assembly complex.
The demand for installing Sequeira's statue was put forward by the Goa Forward Party on January 16, this year, when it celebrated Opinion Poll day.
The ruling BJP, however, had expressed its opposition stating that the assembly already had a statue of Goas first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar and more statues were not required.