Days after the February 14 state assembly elections, which saw nearly 80 percent of voters turning up to cast a ballot, Goa Director General of Police Indra Dev Shukla on Thursday said that the voters in the coastal state had rejected the culture of electoral violence which is prevalent in other states.
"I will say that the election has gone peacefully and the people of Goa have shown a mirror to all others who were participating here. I don't want to comment (on) anybody. But one thing I will certainly say, in few states, few political parties, they believe in that their election starts with the bomb, murder, burning of houses, with ransacking, with inducement with threatening," Shukla said at a function organised at an industrial estate in Verna in South Goa.
Shukla's comment mirrors criticism of the Trinamool Congress by the Bharatiya Janata Party, whose state and central leaders claimed that the party's cadre had resorted to violence during the run-up and after the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls in which the BJP was trounced by the Mamata Banerjee-based party.
Shukla said that by voting peacefully and in large numbers, the voters had rejected the violent electoral culture.
"The people of Goa, Goenkars, have given a very good lesson. No, ideologically we may be different, but these cultures cannot be brought here and it cannot be a fertile ground for you. And it will never be a fertile ground for you," Shukla said.
"We do not want all these kinds of things. Irrespective of any party across the lines, credit goes to the people and they have voted in such a huge mass, but no violence. No doubt, we have also acted positively, wherever possible," he added.
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Published 17 February 2022, 17:33 IST