The Goa Congress on Saturday accused Chief Minister Pramod Sawant of spending time in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi Lok Sabha constituency and running away from the "burning issues" in Goa.
This comes on a day when Sawant visited Baraulia village in Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani's constituency on a condolence visit to the home of a local BJP worker.
Sawant during his brief visit to Baraulia met the family of the late Surendra Singh and took stock of projects undertaken by former defence minister the late Manohar Parrikar, who had adopted the village as part of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Addressing a press conference in Panaji, state Congress president Girish Chodankar said that Goa should be Sawant's priority and that the chief minister should address pressing issues like resumption of mining and unemployment, instead of visiting Uttar Pradesh.
"I don't understand the priorities of our chief minister. Is he a chief minister of Goa or Uttar Pradesh? If he wants to help (Amethi) he should join the (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi Cabinet, so that he becomes a Union minister and then he can go around and solve problems everywhere in the country. We want a chief minister who can focus on Goa's problems," Chodankar told reporters, even as Sawant landed in Amethi on Saturday morning accompanying Smriti.
Sawant, who had campaigned for Smriti in Amethi during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, said that he felt sad on account of Singh's death.
Singh was shot dead in May due to a dispute over a petty local rivalry.
"In 2014 elections, I had come here to work as party worker. I was an MLA that time. I had then met Surendra Singh. The party has lost a good worker," Sawant said soon after he visited Singh's family.
He also said that if local authorities were to request, the Goa government could partner in developing a project in the memory of Parrikar, who died after suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer in March this year.
"If we get a chance we will do something. The authorities should decide. If they allow us, we will do something in the memory of Parrikar ji," Sawant said.
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