Senior BJP leaders unhappy with party’s ‘Congressization’

NT NETWORK

 

PANAJI

Stating that the Bharatiya Janata Party has moved from being a cadre-based party to a power-based party and its Congressization is now complete, those who were with the BJP during its inception and formative years in Goa, reacting to the recent entry of two more Congressmen namely Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte in the BJP, said that this “unnatural act” would seriously damage the future prospects of BJP in Goa.

Senior BJP leader and a member of the state BJP core committee Rajendra Arlekar said that he is unhappy over the decision of the party to induct two more Congressmen into it, especially as there was no need to do so.

“I have a fear as to whether we are moving toward Congressization of the BJP,” Arlekar stated, pointing out, “This is not a way to grow our party.” He also maintained that there are other ways to do so, like say, induct fresh blood that is youth with leadership qualities into the party, and groom them to be good party leaders.

Former chief minister and a senior member of the state BJP core committee, Laxmikant Parsekar, who

incidentally lost election against Sopte during the 2017 state assembly polls, speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’ said that now Sopte should answer his voters as well as those who worked exuberantly for his victory at the election, why he chose to resign within one-and-a-half years, instead of completing his full five-year term and working for the progress and development of his constituency.

“In the past, Sopte holding the finger of Vishwajit Rane had deserted BJP to join Congress, and now he has arrived in the BJP by holding the same finger,” he quipped, questioning as to whether Sopte was a MLA or a person to be used by anyone and everyone.

Speaking further, Parsekar said that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and state leader of the BJP Vinay Tendulkar should also tell Goans why the government and the party needed to import two Congressmen.

Parsekar also expressed anguish over the act of Tendulkar to brief him about the induction of the two Congressmen into the BJP after everything was finalised without bothering to discuss the important issue with him earlier. “I was once his leader and a senior party functionary, but he chose to ignore me, and rang me up to inform about the same when the Congressmen were already in Delhi to meet national BJP president Amit Shah,” he lamented, retorting that the state BJP president seem to have no say of his own; earlier he was blindly following Parrikar and now totally dependent on Shah.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Subhash Velingkar, who was closely associated with the state unit of the BJP in the past, especially during party’s initial years in Goa, said that the BJP was formed on a basis of conceptual doctrine, with a strategy that its development as well as growth to take place through cadre-based members and leaders.

“Gradually, when the vision and beliefs of the BJP were accepted by the people and they brought the party to power, the party, rather than being socially-centred became self-centred,” Velingkar observed, adding that such politics was neither expected by the RSS, nor acceptable to people like him, who later broke away.

“All these things that are presently going on in the BJP are unnatural acts, which were never part of the party,” he noted, predicting that such things will end the presence of BJP in Goa altogether, in the near future.

On a parting note, Velingkar said that Goa is witnessing repetition of history; earlier leaders getting elected on the symbol of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and later joining the Congress party. “That had ended MGP’s existence, and similar things now going on in the BJP will end its existence in the state,” he concluded.