PANAJI
Utpal Parrikar who?
Former Chief Minister Late Manohar Parrikar’s trusted aide and former Panaji MLA Sidharth Kuncalienkar on Friday, on repeated occasions, refused to acknowledge Parrikar’s elder son, Utpal, as a Bharatiya Janata Party leader.
Grilled by media persons in Panaji, a day after Utpal’s outburst against the BJP, accusing party leaders of conveniently opting for tainted candidates for the assembly polls, Kuncalienkar found it difficult to squirm out a barrage of questions about political moves made by Parrikar’s son.
To an early question by a media person, who sought comments about a BJP leader who had already started campaigning in Panaji, despite tickets not being formally announced by the party, Kuncalienkar said: “Campaigning is everyone’s democratic right... I am not aware of which leader you are referring to. I do not know which leader is campaigning in Panaji. In fact, no leader is campaigning in Panaji, this is the news I have heard”.
When specifically asked by a reporter about Utpal’s ongoing campaign in Panaji, Kuncalienkar said: “I do not know. Utpal Parrikar yes, but I do not know about any leader. Everybody is free to campaign in Panaji or anywhere in Goa or anywhere in the country. It is the democratic right of a citizen”.
Kuncalienkar also said that it was up to the BJP leadership to decide whether Utpal, who is a member of the BJP state executive committee, was a party leader or not.
“I am not aware sir. That is for the leadership to decide,” Kuncalienkar said when pointedly asked whether he considers Utpal as a party leader.
“Our party is based on workers. And every worker is a leader for me. For me, everybody is a leader. One who follows me, or one whom I follow. We are all leaders in this party. The party has treated us like that,” Kuncalienkar also said.
Asked whether it was correct on the part of an aspiring candidate to campaign in his constituency, even as the party has not formally cleared the candidate’s name yet, Kuncalienkar said: Correct or wrong is for the person to decide. I am not a judge sitting here to decide”.
Kuncalienkar, who himself is a claimant for the BJP ticket for the Panaji seat also said that he was willing to fulfil any responsibility given to him by the party hierarchy.
When asked if there was a possibility of a clash between the BJP‘s party set-up in Panaji, once the ticket is announced, considering that there are three claimants for the seat, namely Monserrate, Utpal and Sidharth himself, Kuncalienkar said: “Whatever happens, the BJP is capable of facing it”.
