Karwar: Congress leaders who are already worried over the inclusion of MLAs B Nagendra and B.S. Anand Singh who had faced illegal mining charges- into the party, are now worried about fresh 'mine trouble’ with Karwar MLA Sathish Sail set to contest from the same seat he had won in 2013.
Mr Sail, who was earlier in the Congress, had contested as an independent candidate in the 2013 election. He later joined the Congress party. After he became an MLA, he was arrested in connection with illegal mining. Now, fresh summons have been issued to Sail in connection with the mining scam in Goa which has annoyed Congress leaders.
The Special Investigating Team (SIT) of Goa is probing the Rs 35,000 crore illegal mining and export case and whether Sail is involved in this case as he allegedly had links with one of the main accused.
"We had fought the 2013 election against the minelords. Our CM himself used to name the accused including Anand Singh. It is really sad that we have all these leaders in our party. Sathish Sail was an independent MLA and now our party has not only taken him in, he will be our candidate from Karwar. We are really in a fix," a senior Congress leader said.
“How can we speak about illegal mining in this election? Now summons have been issued to Sail. If the party fields him as a candidate and if he is arrested in the case before the election, how can we face the election?" he questioned.
"Sail had worked against the party in the 2013 election and later claims to have joined the Congress. There are charges of illegal mining against him and the majority of Congress leaders are opposed to Sail," state NSUI general secretary Siddharth Naik told Deccan Chronicle.
