PANAJI
After weeks of suspense and much anticipation, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared Pallavi Dempo, wife of noted Goan industrialist Shrinivas Dempo, as its candidate for the South Goa parliamentary seat late on Sunday evening.
Pallavi’s name was included in the final list released by the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) in Delhi hours after she formally joined the saffron party at its headquarters in Panaji.
Top BJP leaders from the State including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, BJP State president and Rajya Sabha MP, Sadanand Shet Tanavade and Union Minister of State, Shripad Naik, were present to welcome Pallavi into the party.
In her first reactions to the development, Pallavi thanked the party for the nomination.
"There's always a beginning," she said in response to a query on her entry into politics when it was never on her radar.
She also said she "believes in the ideology of the BJP" to explain her political debut in that party.
Later speaking just before Sawant, Tanavade and the other leaders addressed the media post the announcement of her name in Delhi, Pallavi said she thanks the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for her nomination.
She also thanked Sawant, Tanavade and Naik besides all BJP 'karyakatas' for the nomination.
Tanavade told the media that Pallavi is already a member of the BJP and all leaders and workers of the party will work to get the candidates in both the seats elected.
"Our two seats would be part of the 400-plus across India," Tanavade said.
Sawant asserted that all the probable candidates whose names featured in media reports as probable candidates for the South Goa seat are behind Pallavi's candidature and she will win with a margin of at least 60,000 votes.
"The contribution and social service of the Dempo family extends to the whole of Goa and it is irrespective of religion, caste or creed," Sawant said.
Sawant also said that it is the first time that any party has nominated a woman for the South Goa seat.
"We have nominated her and we will ensure that she wins," Sawant said, adding that it amounts to not just 33% but Modi has ensured that reservation for women is 50 per cent in Goa.
Pallavi, a complete outsider and a novice in politics, beat two political heavyweights in the race to the ticket -- former deputy chief minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar and former South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar.
Former chief minister and Margao MLA, Digambar Kamat, and BJP State vice president Damu Naik were also among the probables but the duo backed off early in the race.
The South Goa seat is currently represented by the Congress leader Francisco Sardinha who is again in the fray for the ticket and is a front-runner among a couple of other claimants -- Captain Viriato Fernandes and former GPCC president Girish Chodankar.
The BJP has won the South Goa seat just twice -- once in 1999 when the late Ramakant Angle won and again in 2014 with Narendra Sawaikar as its nominee.
