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Will back out if BJP fields good candidate, says Parrikar’s son
Parrikar quit the BJP after he was denied a ticket from Panaji, a constituency that his father and party veteran had represented for more than two decades. After quitting the party on Friday, he said he will fight the February 14 elections from the Panaji seat as an independent.
PANAJI: A day after quitting the Bharaytia Janata Party (BJP) to contest next month’s Goa assembly elections from Panaji as an independent, Utpal Parrikar, son of late chief minister Manohar Parrikar, said on Saturday that he was ready to withdraw from the race if the party fields a “good candidate” from the constituency.
Parrikar quit the BJP after he was denied a ticket from Panaji, a constituency that his father and party veteran had represented for more than two decades. After quitting the party on Friday, he said he will fight the February 14 elections from the Panaji seat as an independent.
The BJP has nominated sitting legislator Atanasio “Babush” Monserrate, one of the 10 MLAs who joined the party in July 2019 after quitting Congress, as its candidate from Panaji. Monserrate is facing multiple criminal cases, including a case of rape of a minor.
Parrikar said the decision to quit the party was a “most difficult decision”. If the party had given the ticket to any “good candidate who didn’t have a criminal background,” he would not have been forced to quit the BJP, he said.
“It is not about me. Give us a good candidate for Panaji, one who is not a criminal, and I will back out and tell the voters to vote for this candidate,” Parrikar said.
Manohar Parrikar represented the Panaji constituency since 1994 and until his death in 2019, apart from a brief two-year term when he was India’s defence minister and a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh.
However, the BJP has justified its decision to field Monserrate from Panaji, saying he can “best represent the aspirations of the people”.
Issuing a public notice in a local daily, a practice made mandatory as per directions of the Supreme Court, the BJP said “he has been actively engaged in social service for the people of the constituency for the past many years.”
“He was found to have a good understanding of the ground situation and shared a good rapport with the voters here,” the notice read.
Though the party has claimed that Monserrate is a “senior politician who has represented the constituency multiple times before”, in truth it is Monserrate’s first term as Panaji MLA. He had previously represented Taleigao and Santa Cruz constituencies.
Monserrate is among seven BJP candidates to have criminal cases registered against them. His wife Jennifer Monserrate, who is the BJP candidate from Taleigao, too, has criminal cases relating to assault on police registered against her. Others with criminal cases are Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude, Krishna Salkar, Mauvin Godinho and Chandrakant Kavlekar.
