Will sort out differences with MGP, says Vinay Tendulkar

PANAJI: Reacting to the petition filed by the MGP against former Congress MLAs, who recently joined the BJP, to stop them from contesting bypolls, state BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar said MGP and BJP leaders will meet on November 24 to sought out the differences between the two parties.

Since the last couple of days, the MGP has been coming out with several statements against the BJP government and chief minister Manohar Parrikar.

Tendulkar told TOI he had spoken to PWD minister and MGP senior leader Ramkrishna Dhavalikar over the issue at an IFFI function, adding, “We have decided to sit across the table to sought out all the differences.”

When told the MGP’s statements were against the BJP-led government, Tendulkar said everybody these days wants to go to the press and get publicity.

When asked why the MGP was not being dropped from the government over its remarks, the senior BJP functionary said, “We have come together and formed the coalition government in the state. We will continue to work together to provide good governance and for the next three-and-a-half years, we want to continue the same way” When asked about the petition being filed in the court against the newly inducted BJP members, Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirdokar, Tendulkar said, “We have full faith in the judiciary and the ruling will be our favour.”

MGP has moved the high court of Bombay at Goa to restrain Sopte and Shirodkar from contesting the upcoming bye-election. It had recently demanded that the CM’s charge be handover to Dhavalikar, who is senior-most minister in the cabinet, else the party leadership said it was free to contest the upcoming bypolls and Lok Sabha elections.

MGP president Pandurang Dhavalikar recently said since the last eight months, the chief minister is unwell and the state administration has come to an standstill.