PANAJI
As anticipated, the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) has endorsed Shripad Naik's candidature for the North Goa seat, a stronghold from where he has won five times consecutively.
However, the suspense continues for the South Goa candidate, with the party’s State leadership supporting former Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar.
The Parliamentary Board is expected to announce the first list of candidates for 17 States including Goa soon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the CEC meeting in Delhi, which lasted over five hours starting from 10.30 pm on Thursday. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade attended the meeting, where each candidate’s performance was evaluated and discussed.
The decision over South Goa could be delayed as party sources indicated the name could be released in the second list.
"The party is prioritizing winnability in South Goa, particularly with AAP aligning with Congress, which could pose slight competition for the BJP. During the last LS polls, AAP had no MLA in any of South Goa’s constituencies despite which the party managed to garner 20,000 votes for the LS polls. Now that the party has two MLAs, BJP will leave no room for chance. We are brainstorming on the candidates,” the source revealed.
Tanavade, at a press conference on Thursday, had stated that BJP “fears nobody” when questioned by the media about the AAP-Congress coalition, wherein Congress candidates would be fielded in both districts with AAP’s support.
"The BJP aims to secure votes beyond its traditional support base, including among ST, SC, OBC, and minority communities and even intends to divide Congress votes. Hence, Kavlekar is the preferred choice of the state leadership,” the source elaborated, adding, “in 2019, the party suffered a narrow defeat of only 9000 votes, and at that time, Ravi Naik and Sudin Dhavalikar were not aligned with the BJP. This time, the situation is different, especially with the BJP having a stronghold in four constituencies of Ponda.”
