PANAJI
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Goa will announce its candidates for the upcoming Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections within a week, BJP State President Damu Naik confirmed on Saturday. The party will contest the polls in alliance.
Speaking to The Goan, Naik said the scrutiny process has been completed and the party is now in the final stage of candidate selection. “We are definitely going to polls in alliance. Everything will be announced within a week including the candidates,” he stated.
Naik further explained that the selection process involved multiple layers of feedback and evaluation. “Being democratic, we have to follow all the rules including public opinion, loyalty of a candidate to the party and the State, what the respective MLAs say on that particular candidate, core committee members’ take on it, public review and also the overall survey report,” he said.
The party revealed that nearly 80 per cent of the candidates shortlisted for the polls are new faces. “This time, we are fielding candidates from the party cadre – those who have worked on the ground and are committed to the party. We want candidates who will not switch allegiance to other parties,” another party leader said.
Meanwhile, AAP has already announced the second list of ZP candidates, Congress will announce its list on Monday after a consultation meet with GFP.
