The candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa on Wednesday signed affidavits and took loyalty oaths to the voters of the state.
“This is a legal guarantee, that we will not defect like Congress-BJP MLAs!” the party said in a tweet.
Political debutant Amit Palekar, who has been announced as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the state, administered the oath to the candidates in Konkani, according to The Indian Express.
The elections to the 40 Assembly seats to Goa will be held in a single phase on February 14. The results will be announced on March 10.
Delhi Chief Minister and party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal said that in the affidavit candidates stated that if they are elected they will work honestly, not accept bribes, not engage in corruption and not defect from the party, according to The Indian Express.
“We have carefully chosen our candidates,” Kejriwal said. “We have ensured they are honest, have a clean image.”
The Aam Aadmi Party chief said that the copies of the affidavits would be distributed by candidates to voters in their constituencies.
“Goa’s politics is such that after winning elections, people go to other parties on a mass scale,” Kejriwal added.
“I think it must’ve been a Guinness World Record that 15 of one party’s 17 MLAs went to another party,” Kejriwal said. “The response will have to be according to the politics of the place.”
Earlier, the Goa unit of the Congress party had taken its candidates to a temple, a church and a mosque where they had taken a pledge of loyalty and promised that they would not defect after the elections, NDTV reported.
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