PANAJI
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officially named the incumbent, Union minister, Shripad Naik as its nominee for the North Goa seat again but the ambiguity over who its candidate in South Goa will be continues.
Naik's name was in the first list of 195 candidates for Lok Sabha seats from across the country which the BJP officially announced in Delhi.
The party, however, refrained from naming its candidate for the second seat from Goa -- Mormugao (South Goa) -- where the race for the party's ticket is said to be tight between former Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar and former MP Narendra Sawaikar although some other names like that of party general secretary Damu Naik are still in the realm of consideration.
Meanwhile, the ruling party on Saturday morning launched its ambitious public outreach programme -- Sankalp Patra Sujhav Abhiyan (Programme to seek suggestions for Manifesto) -- from the party headquarters at Panaji where Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, State president and Rajya Sabha MP, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, ministers and party leaders were present.
Earlier, Sawant and Tanavade along with other party leaders addressed a press conference where the chief minister said he was confident that both the seats in Goa will be won by the BJP candidates with a thumping majority.
In a bid to stem media speculation over the candidate selection process for South Goa, Sawant, said the name will be finalised soon and announced in the second list which will be released by the party in Delhi.
"Discussions are still on for the South Goa seat," Sawant said, even as he claimed that the candidate's name will be announced in the second list.
The Goa election committee of the BJP had last week recommended multiple names for both the seats but there was unanimity internally only for the North Goa seat where almost all rooted for renominating Naik.
In South Goa, Kavlekar who party sources said has strong numbers in internal surveys, has the edge but Sawaikar who succeeded once to wrest the seat in 2014 but lost narrowly in 2019, is also a strong contender.
BJP sources said, the rebellion by Kavlekar's wife Savitry, who unsuccessfully contested the 2022 assembly election as an independent from Sanguem constituency, came up during the deliberations held with the Goa leadership in Delhi.
Art and Culture Minister, Subhash Phal Desai, who was the party's successful candidate in Sanguem in the 2022 assembly election, had therefore been summoned to join the deliberations and iron out the chasms, the sources said.
Meanwhile Tourism Minster Rohan Khaunte, who also addressed the press conference along with Sawant and Tanavade said, the Viksit Bharat Modi Ki Guarantee video van will travel in every constituency of Goa to gather people's suggestions for Viksit Bharat 2047 as part of the 'Sankalp Patra Sujhav Abhiyan'.
The party has targeted to collect at least 50,000 such suggestions which will then be scrutinized by a committee headed by WRD Minister Subhash Shirodkar before forwarding it to the manifesto team in Delhi.
