Manoj files nomination for North Goa amid large entourage of supporters
PANAJI
Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) president Manoj Parab filed his nomination papers as a candidate for the North Goa Lok Sabha seat before Returning Officer Sneha Gite around noon on Thursday.
He was accompanied by the party sole legislator, Viresh Borkar and other RGP functionaries.
Earlier, Parab led a large group of his supporters waving party flags and several of them holding footballs, which is the party’s symbol, as they marched towards the Collectorate building in the capital city in a show of strength.
The entourage was stopped by the personnel at the police barricade on the western side of the heritage edifice and just Parab, Borkar and a handful of other supporters were permitted to proceed to the Collector’s office.
Parab and his RGP, which made an impressionable debut in electoral politics in the 2022 assembly elections by winning the solitary St Andre seat and polling upwards of a 10% vote share, is hoping to repeat or better that performance and spread their footprint across the State.
With Parab filing his nomination on Thursday, the field for the North Goa seat has more or less got filled up with the contest expected to be in the main between the BJP’s sitting MP, Shripad Naik and the INDIA bloc’s Congress candidate Ramakant Khalap.
Parab’s presence gives the contest a bit of a twist, with pundits divided over how it will impact the final outcome.
Expectedly, Parab and his party which is also contesting the South Goa seat, are already facing widespread criticism for throwing their hat in the ring. Accused of aiding the ruling BJP, a charge they also faced during the 2022 assembly elections, they have however strongly denied the allegations.
