Goa: Congress, AAP, Trinamool file complaints with EC day before polling

With less than 12 hours before the electorate in Goa casts its vote to decide on who will form the next government in the state, the political slugfest continues with complaints and counter-complaints by political parties following a sting operation, emergence of fake letters, and leaking of doctored WhatsApp chats.

On Sunday evening, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar claimed that his signature had been forged on a letter dated February 9, which he is alleged to have written to party national general secretary K C Venugopal. In the referred letter being circulated on social media, Chodankar urges Venugopal to take matters into his own hands as he does not wish to leave Goa to the wisdom of state-in-charges P Chidambaram and Dinesh Gundu Rao.

The letter, which Chodankar has denied ever writing, said that it had been made to appear as if there was a rift within the party in Goa. The letter seemed to suggest that the decisions pertaining to pre-poll alliances taken by the party’s state-in-charges were not in sync with sentiments of people on the ground.

The letter emerged hours after a sting operation by a Hindi news channel, where three Congress candidates and a TMC candidate were allegedly striking deals with the channel’s undercover reporters. Under the alleged deal, in return for money, these candidates were willing to switch sides and support the BJP if required. The Congress party has termed the sting by the television channel, as fabricated and lodged complaints with the Chief Electoral Officer.

All three Congress candidates Avertano Furtado from Navelim, Savio D’Silva from Velim, and Sankalp Amonkar from Mormugao along with Churchill Alemao, the TMC candidate from Benaulim have filed separate complaints with the EC in this regard terming the videos and audio as fake.

The complaints name the editor Atul Agarwal, and the anchor of news channel Hindi Khabar, AAP Goa CM-face Amit Palekar, and BJP state president Sadanand Seth Tanawade. A separate complaint by the Congress with the Panaji Police Station also named AAP national leader Atishi and Goa convenor Rahul Mahambre.

Congress has alleged that Palekar and Tanavade have violated Section 126 of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1951, propagating an election matter with the sole intention to influence and affect the result of the election.

“These two were seen on the channel, referring to this news item and repeatedly trying to defame me and to appeal to the electorate, by actively suggesting that votes for me would be wasted and that I would be switching sides to join the BJP,” identical complaints by the three Congress candidates named in the alleged sting operation said.

Alleged WhatsApp Chats of state Congress group that were leaked seemed to suggest that Dinesh Gundu Rao, Chodankar and party's national social media convenor Hasiba Amin agree that the sting had caused damage and they should call it a 'deep fake' video. The state Congress has pointed out to the names of the WhatsApp group members not appearing in an alphabetic order as it would if the group was a real one and not faked.

Congress Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao also echoed the same after visiting the EC office. “Fake WhatsApp chats, fake videos, and now fake letters of our state president have been created. We have credible information that AAP is behind all of this malicious propaganda. In fact, Nitin Gadkari had spilled out the truth recently when he said that AAP Goa was helping the BJP in the state. We have filed complaints against the violators for the fake and doctored videos in circulation. This is a conspiracy to defeat the Congress in Goa,” Rao said.

AAP meanwhile complained to the EC asking it to immediately cancel the candidature of those seen in the sting tapes. Goa AAP in-charge Atishi said, “This is a ghastly image of the deterioration of politics brought about by the exposed candidates. They are prepared to betray the people’s mandate even before a single vote is cast. Right-minded people and parties cannot remain moot spectators to these developments. AAP would be failing in its duty if it does not draw the attention of the election commission in this regard,” she said.