Former Goa Chief Minister and veteran Congressman Digambar Kamat, who won from Margao constituency, today credited his party workers for the victory. “I attribute my victory to all my party workers who stood by me and reposed their faith in me,” Kamat told reporters outside the counting centre here in South Goa. Kamat romped home after defeating BJP candidate Sharmad Pai Raiturcar by 4,900 votes. Talking to media men after his win, Kamat claimed, “the BJP-led government tried to harass me. They filed fake cases against me. They tried to jail me. Only God protected me.”

The 63-year-old leader was at helm of affairs in Goa from 2007-12. He was booked by Goa Crime Branch in the multi-crore Louis bribery case in 2015 along with his former cabinet colleague Churchill Alemao. While Kamat was granted anticipatory bail in the case, Alemao was arrested.

The case pertains to US-firm Louis Berger, which was charged with bribing Indian officials with several crores of rupees to win two major water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati. The Rs 1,031-crore project, funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was approved when Kamat government was in power for augmenting water supply in south Goa and laying sewerage lines in the state’s major cities.