NT NETWORK
Panaji
The arrival of B L Santhosh, the national general secretary (organisation) of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in Goa on Wednesday, which is erroneously interpreted by many as a visit to launch the preparations of the party for the 2022 state assembly polls, has resulted in some of the senior party members at the local level expressing their desire to contest this election.
A state BJP functionary told ‘The Navhind Times’ that the recent statement of BJP Rajya Sabha member from Goa Vinay Tendulkar in which he spoke about his desire to contest the forthcoming state assembly election from any constituency by resigning as the Member of Parliament is exactly timed with the arrival of Santhosh in Goa.
“In fact, there are few high-ranking functionaries of the party in Goa, who want to contest this election and win the same, as their eye is on becoming the chief minister of the state,” the party functionary stated, pointing out, “These individuals feel that if Pramod Sawant, a comparatively junior MLA of the party could become the chief minister, then why can’t they be able to fill the post.”
Incidentally, the news about Santhosh arriving in Goa to commence the party’s preparations for the state assembly election is a result of misreporting by a section of media. State president of the BJP Sadanand Tanawade informed this daily that the national general secretary (organisation) of BJP has arrived in Goa on a two-day visit, as he wants to discuss some organisational matters, but carry out no political deliberations.
Meanwhile, one of the senior-most members of BJP and a member of the party’s state core committee Rajendra Arlekar said that generally speaking, the dedicated voters of any party always support those party candidates at the elections, who have been loyal to the party and display honesty on their part.
Incidentally, Tendulkar had stated that today there is a pressing need for the BJP on the local level, to have loyal and committed candidates contesting the 2022 state assembly election. He had also quoted his name as one of the “party’s loyal soldiers” and expressed desire to contest the said election, which is to take place at the beginning of the next year.
One could not, however, miss the irony in this statement of Tendulkar as he himself, as the then state president of the BJP was responsible for importing tons of legislators from other political parties into his party. Most of these legislators, who had deserted their party to join the BJP, had also been assured the BJP candidature at the 2022 state assembly election.
Former chief minister and another member of the party’s core committee Laxmikant Parsekar said that when Tendulkar had imported MLAs from other political parties, the related operations were kept under the wraps until the very last minute and the state core committee of the BJP was also kept in the dark about the same.
“Now, the statement coming from Tendulkar is surprisingly contrary to his role in importing MLAs from other parties,” Parsekar stated, maintaining that the suggestion of Tendulkar as regards allowing loyal and committed BJP members to contest the 2022 state assembly election is valid; however, putting his own name at the top of the list is not very convincing, especially as he remains to complete two years of his tenure as the Rajya Sabha member.
Parsekar also said that the statement of Tendulkar will create turmoil in the minds of those MLAs, who had left their party and sought entry into the BJP. “In fact, such statement will create commotion in the party,” he noted.
Another BJP loyalist stated that when the time for deciding the candidates of the party for the particular election will arrive, those involved in the selection process will find that there are at least two claimants for each electoral constituency, thus fuelling possible acts of rebellion.