All non-BJP parties must support late Manohar Parrikar’s son, Utpal Parrikar foray into Goa assembly polls, appeals Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut

Utpal Parrikar has been disenchanted with the current BJP leadership, which is likely to deny him a ticket

@the_news_21

Mumbai: In an apparent bid to stoke further trouble for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday urged all non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties must support the late BJP leader and ex-Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar should the latter decide to contest the upcoming Goa Assembly election. 

Taking a sarcastic jibe at the Goa BJP leadership under Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, Raut, in a tweet, said that if all opposition parties in Goa supported Utpal’s supposed candidature from Panaji by not fielding any candidate against him, then it would be “true tribute” to the late Parrikar. 

The younger Parrikar has been deeply disenchanted with the present BJP leadership, which, according to political grapevine, is expected to deny him a ticket in the upcoming Assembly election slated for February 14.

To make matters worse for the BJP, it may be recalled that last week, the BJP’s Goa election in-charge, Devendra Fadnavis while commenting on Utpal’s possible candidature had said that the BJP did not give tickets just because someone was the son of a former chief minister and that the decision to awarding a ticket would depend on whether a candidate had some work to show for it.

Utpal Parrikar has expressed interest in contesting as an Independent candidate from the Panaji Assembly constituency, which was held by Manohar Parrikar for 23 years before his untimely demise in March 2019.  

Raut in a tweet today remarked, “If Utpal Parrikar contests Independent from Panaji seat, I propose all non-BJP parties including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Goa Forward Party (GFP) should support his candidature and not field a candidate against him. This will be a true tribute to ManoharBhai.” 

The Sena MP had last week said that his party was ready to back Utpal’s candidature from Panaji should he decide to step in the poll fray.  

While Utpal has been upset with the ‘direction’ the BJP has been taking since his father’s death, he is particularly pained with the BJP’s proposed decision to field former minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate from Panaji. 

Utpal Parrikar had then remarked, “I cannot tolerate the kind of politics that is happening in Goa… It is not acceptable to me. Are they (BJP) suggesting that only winnability is the criteria and that integrity, character doesn’t matter? And you are going to give the ticket to a person who has criminal antecedents (read Monserrate) and we have to sit home quietly?”  

Monserrate, an ex-Congressman, is considered to be one of the key players who engineered the defection of ten Congress MLAs into the BJP in July 2019.

Utpal Parrikar had been eager to contest the May 2019 by-election for the Panaji seat which was necessitated by his father’s demise, but was discouraged from doing so by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on grounds that he reportedly did not have good connect with the voters. 

According to sources, the BJP leadership had wanted Utpal Parrikar to instead support Sidharth Kuncalienkar, who had already been the Panaji MLA between February 2015 and May 2017 in the interim period that Manohar Parrikar was serving as the country’s Defense Minister. (Kuncalienkar had vacated the seat in May 2017 for Parrikar to contest after the latter had resigned as Defense Minister.) 

The 2019 Panaji by-election, however, turned into a debacle for the BJP with Monserrate defeating Kuncalienkar despite the saffron party hoping to ride a ‘sympathy wave’ following Parrikar’s demise – the first time since 1994 that the BJP had lost the seat.