Goa BJP implosion music to opposition ears as Utpal Parrikar announces decision to contest as Independent

Former CM Laxmikant Parsekar, PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar quit BJP; Congress and GFP also hit by resignations spree. Parrikar junior says BJP still in his heart, says ask BJP whether he still is in their hearts

@the_news_21 

Mumbai: Welcoming the opposition offer of unconditional support, Utpal Parrikar, son of late Goa Chief Minister and BJP stalwart Manohar Parrikar on Friday announced that he was contesting as an Independent candidate from Panaji to uphold his late father Manohar Parrikar’s values.

Replying to queries over unconditional support from opposition parties, he said that he was not doing it for getting post or becoming a legislator, he remarked that there was no question of his accepting offers from the opposition parties. Utpal Parrikar quipped that when he did not accept the offers made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership, there was no question of his accepting any other offer.

The son of former BJP stalwart Manohar Parrikar stated that his late father had represented Panaji for more than two decades and had developed close contacts with the people. Rebuking the BJP leadership’s contention that he had no grassroots connect with the people, Utpal Parrikar claimed that he too has developed a similar connect with the people of Panaji.

Commenting upon the BJPs decision to renominate incumbent MLA Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate from Panaji, Utpal Parrikar termed the former Congressman as ‘opportunistically come into the party in last two years’ and one who has had a ‘questionable rap-sheet’.

Replying to queries over the offers made, Utpal Parrikar said that the only platform available to him was the BJP. He added that he could not negotiate with his party as he did not have the liberty to do so. Asked whether he has quit the BJP, he remarked “the BJP is always in his heart. You ask them whether I am still with them.”

Commenting upon queries of support from the opposition parties for his Independent candidature, Parrikar junior remarked that he was open to any support to defeat the candidate he was facing. He added that Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant had told the people of Panaji about the antecedents of Monserrate when he was the Congress candidate during the Panaji by-poll, adding that he did not wish to speak about it again.

Monserrate, an ex-Congressman, was one of the key players who had engineered the defection of 10 Congress MLAs into the BJP in July 2019.

He added that last time he was denied a ticket despite the support, he had listened to the party. Utpal Parrikar remarked that today the decision does not look like that of the party he knew. He added that he was not doing it for any post or becoming a legislator, but left his political electoral fate to the people of Panaji.

Replying to queries over anybody not being offered anything on the platter, he remarked that he was not seeking anything on the platter that is why I am not accepting any offers. As a son I could have asked for a party ticket last time only, he added.

Meanwhile, deep divisions within ranks of the BJP in Goa have surfaced a day after the party declared its list of 34 candidates, with former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Public Works Department Minister Deepak Pauskar both announcing their resignations from the saffron party on being denied tickets. 

Also raising the banner of revolt were Isidore Fernandes – Deputy Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly and the incumbent MLA from Canacona – and Savitri Kavlekar, wife of Goa Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, who resigned as vice-president of the Goa BJP’s women’s wing. She will be contesting as an independent MLA from Sanguem. 

Parsekar, was Chief Minister of the coastal state between 2014 and 2017 when late Manohar Parrikar had to take over as the country’s Defense Minister. Today Parsekar announced that he would contest as an Independent from the Mandrem constituency after he was denied a ticket in favour of the BJP’s incumbent Mandrem legislator Dayanand Sopte.  

Parsekar, a former three-term MLA from Mandrem, had been trounced by Sopte in the 2017 Assembly election when the latter was in the Congress. Sopte later switched sides to the BJP. Parsekar is expected to formally resign from the BJP on Saturday. 

Pauskar has already resigned as an MLA, as a Minister and from the BJP’s primary membership after he was dropped for the Sanvordem constituency, with the party fielding ex-MLA Ganesh Gaonkar in his stead. 

Meanwhile, despite hitting out at the Congress for not doing enough to form an anti-BJP pre-poll alliance, the Trinamool Congress continued to poach leaders from the former with ex-Goa Pradesh Congress Committee member Mahadev Desai joining the TMC fold today along with his supporters. On Thursday, ex-Congress MLA Benjamin Silva, peeved with his party for not being given the Velim ticket, also joined the TMC. 

The Congress ally, the Vijai Sardesai-led Goa Forward Party (GFP), was plagued by internal rifts as well, with its MLA from Siolim, Vinod Paliencar, resigned today as he was upset with his seat being given to the Congress party instead of being kept with the GFP. The GFP is now down to just one MLA – its party leader Sardesai.