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Denied ticket, Goa PWD minister quits BJP, to contest as independent
Pauskar said he wasn’t upset by the BJP’s decision but that the party he had built in his constituency has been deeply hurt by the decision to deny him a ticket, which has forced him to make the move.
Goa Minister for Public Works Deepak Prabhu Pauskar on Friday resigned as minister and from the party after the BJP denied him a ticket.
Pauskar, a first time MLA was made minister after he defected from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party along with party colleague Manohar Ajgaonkar back in 2019 when party leader Sudin Dhavalikar was evicted from the cabinet.
Pauskar said he wasn’t upset by the BJP’s decision but that the party he had built in his constituency has been deeply hurt by the decision to deny him a ticket, which has forced him to make the move.
“I have decided to contest as an independent. I had enrolled more than 16,000 members for the Bharatiya Janata Party from my constituency and more than 60% of them have now resigned along with me. I will work to be re-elected as an independent,” Pauskar said after quitting.
Pauskar was in the centre of a storm over recruitment in the Public Works Department where his own party MLAs accused him of large-scale corruption and favouritism in the selections of candidates.
Following the allegations, the Goa government constituted a three member committee of officers to look into the recruitment procedures while simultaneously keeping the recruitment on hold.
Besides Pauskar, former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar who has been denied a ticket in favour of Dayanand Sopte who joined the party from the Congress in 2018 has also announced that he will be contesting as an independent after consulting his supporters.
The party is also facing dissent in Canacona where deputy Speaker Isidore Fernandes who joined the BJP from the Congress mid-term along with nine other MLAs in 2019, has been overlooked in favour of former MLA Ramesh Tawadkar for the party’s ticket.
Savitri Kavlekar, the wife of deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar has also quit the BJP after she was denied a ticket pointing out that the wives of Vishwajit Rane and Atanasio Monserrate were given tickets but she was not given one.
