Rohan Khaunte, revenue and IT minister of the Indian state of Goa, says casino interests there are trying to sway elections by adding casino employees en masse to electoral rolls to influence government policy on the industry.
Khaunte told the Indian-Asian News Service that he filed a complaint about the alleged “malpractice” with the state chief electoral officer. “I found 820 names of casino employees in my constituency of Porvorim. All the new additions have been routed through one internet protocol address,” Khaunte told IANS.
“The mass enrollment is aimed to infiltrate and influence” Lok Sabha and other elections in order to select politician who are favorable to the casino lobby.” He urged lawmakers to launch a full-scale probe into the matter. “The probe should also include other areas in Goa where there are casino operations existing,” he said.
At present, there are seven offshore casinos operating on the Mandovi River and nine land-based casinos located inside five-star resorts.
The casino industry has long been the subject of controversy in Goa. The state’s leading political parties, the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. When it was the opposition party from 2007 to 2012, the BJP pledged to move Congress-approved casino boats off the Mandovi. But once it took power, the BJP rode to power in 2012, however, the Congress in turn accused the saffron party for being in cahoots with the casino lobby, especially after successive led coalition governments headed by the BJP failed to close down offshore casino operations.
