ABOUT THE MEET
>> BJP's 'core committee' met to chalk out a schedule of 'sammelans' for its cadres in different parts of the State
>> The meeting on Thursday was to invigorate its cadres ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections
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PANAJI: The sulking old guard in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is seemingly adamant to prolong its political mutiny.
After weeks of vociferous protests against recent political decisions of the party leadership in Goa, the troika comprising of former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and ex-ministers Rajendra Arlekar and Dayanand Mandrekar on Thursday skipped a meeting of the party leadership to plan programmes and activities held at the party headquarters on Thursday.
Parsekar, Arlekar and Mandrekar are all members of the BJP's 'core committee' which met on Thursday and chalked out a schedule of 'sammelans' for its cadres in different parts of the State in a bid to invigorate its cadres ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due in the next six months. The meeting was chaired by party president Vinay Tendulkar and discussed the current political situation in Goa, where it is facing a difficult phase due to the immobilisation of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who is stricken with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Parsekar and Arlekar are senior leaders and have of late publicly criticized decisions taken by the party. The duo, who are credited with having played a significant role in building the party organisation since the days it had no presence in the State's political arena, have also severely criticized Tendulkar's style of functioning and operation.
Parsekar, who was chief minister before he lost the 2017 assembly elections from Mandrem, has even demanded the removal of Tendulkar as the party's State president calling him "unfit" to lead the cadres and organisation.
The former chief minister raised the banner of revolt after the party inducted former Mandrem MLA Dayanand Sopte, who resigned his membership of the legislature and the Congress without consulting him. Sopte, contesting on the Congress ticket, had defeated Parsekar in the Assembly elections.
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BJP team tries to
placate Kahunte
PANAJI: A fire-fighting team of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday met with Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte in a bid to placate the minister who recently went publicly critical over the administrative stalemate with ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar not attending office. Sources said, a team comprising Rajya Sabha MP and BJP State president, Vinay Tendulkar on Wednesday held a meeting with Khaunte at the ministerial block of the Secretariat.
BJP treasurer, Sanjiv Desai, vice-president Dutta Kholkar and general secretary Sadanand Tanvade, were also part of the team which held talks with Khaunte. The team told the minister that they would convey the issues to the chief minister at the earliest opportunity.
