With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa riven by internal rebellions after the party announced its first list of candidates, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday claimed that the saffron party would not win a majority this time in the upcoming Goa Assembly election.
Speaking in Mumbai, Mr. Raut further remarked that if Utpal Parrikar, son of the late BJP Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, fought the Panaji seat with determination, then he had the potential to lead Goa in the future.
The Sena leader alluded to the resignations of both the younger Parrikar and former Goa CM and long-time BJP loyalist Laxmikant Parsekar, both of whom exited the party after being denied tickets in the BJP’s first list of 34 candidates.
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“Both Manohar Parrikar and Laxmikant Parsekar had helped lay the BJP’s roots in Goa. Now, Mr. Parsekar and the late Mr. Parrikar’s son, Utpal, are no longer with the BJP. In their stead, candidates with criminal antecedents, who are part of Goa’s land and drug mafia, have been given tickets by the BJP leadership. I can give you in writing that the BJP will not get a majority in the upcoming election,” said Mr. Raut, who is overseeing his party’s election campaign in Goa.
The Sena, which has formed an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is to contest on 12 seats while the NCP will be fighting on seven-eight seats, informed Mr. Raut.
An editorial today in the Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, of which Mr. Raut is the executive editor noted that in the confusion engulfing Goa’s politics today, Utpal Parrikar had emerged as a rallying point.
Winds of dissent
“The BJP is being buffeted by winds of dissent. Several MLAs and leaders who were dropped have raised the banner of revolt like Mr. Parsekar, Public Works Department Minister and sitting MLA Deepak Pauskar exiting the party and announcing their respective decisions to contest as independents,” said the editorial.
Mr. Parsekar, a former three-term MLA from Mandrem, had been trounced by Mr. Sopte in the 2017 Assembly election when the latter was in the Congress. Mr. Sopte later switched sides to the BJP.
Despite the attempts of the BJP’s Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis to mollify Mr. Parsekar, the veteran leader has been firm on contesting as an independent.
The Sena accused the BJP of hypocrisy, with the editorial questioning that despite the BJP’s much-vaunted ‘anti-dynastic’ stance, why had the party given tickets to Jennifer Monserrate and Dr. Divya Rane - the respective spouses of incumbent Panaji MLA Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate and Goa Health Minister Viswajit Rane while denying Manohar Parrikar’s son a ticket.
Earlier, Mr. Raut had called upon all non-BJP parties to support Utpal from the Panaji while even offering to withdraw the Sena’s candidate from the fray in Panaji.
