the goan I network
PANAJI
Having been wooed for some days by the Opposition camp, Mahadev Naik, the former industries minister in the Manohar Parrikar and Laxmikant Parsekar cabinets between 2012-17 on Friday announced he will quit the Bharatiya Janata Party and join the ideologically opposed Congress on Sunday.
Naik who has been upset with the saffron party’s decision to admit his friend-turned-foe, the veteran Subhash Shirodkar, after the latter quit as MLA in October last year, said he has accepted the requests of Congress workers from the constituency who came to his residence and requested him to join their party.
“I have accepted their request. I will resign from the BJP and join the Congress on Sunday,” Naik said.
Separately, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president, Girish Chodankar, also confirmed Naik’s claim.
“Mahadev Naik will join our party on Sunday,” Chodankar said the organisational head of the Congress which had devised its strategy to lure Naik at a conclave of its leadership on Thursday.
As The Goan reported in its Friday edition, top brass of the Congress, including AICC in-charge of Goa, Dr Chella Kumar, Chodankar and former chief ministers Digambar Kamat and Ravi Naik, held a meeting at a Margao hotel where they also confabulated with prospective candidates for the Shiroda bye-poll.
Accordingly, some Shiroda workers of the party visited Naik’s home on Friday and persuaded him to join. Naik in all likelihood will be fielded by the Congress as its candidate
