I am not a Portuguese citizen: Sardinha
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 26 November 2013 21:50 ISTSouth Goa MP Francisco Sardinha has clarified that he is the proud citizen of India and not a Portuguese citizen.
A remark in this regard was made by Radharao Gracias, vice president of the United Goans Democratic Party.
“I neither hold a Portuguese passport nor I am registered as a Portuguese citizen in Portugal”, Sardinha clarified today at a last-minute press conference at Congress House.
When asked whether he was a Portuguese citizen at any given time, he quipped in a lighter vein: “Yes, before Goa was liberated in 1961.”
He however denied that his case was like BJP Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo, who had registered his birth in Portugal but had surrendered in January this year, after objections were raised in this regard.
Sardinha also alleged that the same people, who had once got his Assembly election countermanded, are behind spreading this rumour.
Sardinha is expected to contest the Lok Sabha election once again while defeated former Navelim MLA Churchill Alemao is also trying hard to seize the ticket from him.