Panaji, Apr 19 (IANS): Reacting to a statement of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, the Congress on Thursday dared him to open a case against the Congress candidate for the North Goa Lok Sabha seat in connection with the ‘bankruptcy’ of a cooperative bank.

State Congress Vice President Sunil Kawthankar told mediapersons that CM Sawant has conceded defeat as he knows that the BJP candidate for North Goa has failed miserably.

The Congress has fielded former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap from North Goa, who was the Chairman of a cooperative bank that ran into losses allegedly due to non-performing assets (NPAs).

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Sawant said that "these files can be opened".

“I am not giving threat to anyone, as we don’t have such a habit,” Sawant said.

“I condemn the act of Sawant who is giving threats to the LS candidates from the Chief Minister's chair. We dare him to investigate the case. Why did he wait till the elections to level such charges? Manohar Parrikar was the Chief Minister of Goa, but he never used such language,” Kawthankar said.

“If Sawant wanted to help the stakeholders in this cooperative bank, what was he doing all these years? He should have investigated the matter and recovered the money of the stakeholders,” Kawthankar said.