Panaji, Nov 27 (IANS): BJP MLA and Goa Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar on Wednesday refuted the criticism from the Opposition for taking family members along on a foreign trip earlier this year by arguing that he had also done so when he was a minister in a Congress-led government.

"Last time, allegations were made that my family travels with me on outstation tours. Did our families not travel when the Congress was in power? Did families not travel ahead of the Lusofonia Games, and before that too," Ajgaonkar asked while speaking to reporters at the State Secretariat.

Lusofonia Games is an international sporting event of the Portuguese Commonwealth.

"The Congress never raked this up (then)," the Tourism Minister said.

In May this year, the Congress had demanded the resignation of Ajgaonkar after he had taken members of his family along on a tourism promotion junket to the UAE.

In 2018 too, Ajgaonkar had come under criticism for taking members of his family on an official visit to the US. Ajgaonkar had served as a Cabinet minister in the Congress-led coalition government from 2007-2012.