MAPUSA
In a setback for the BJP in Saligao, senior leader and Zilla Panchayat (ZP) member Rupesh Naik resigned from the post and primary membership of the BJP to contest as an Independent candidate in the assembly election.
Naik also said, “The BJP IS no longer a party of karyakartas as the Saligao BJP ticket was issued to an imported candidate without taking the party workers into confidence.”
“I have resigned as the ZP member of Reis Magos because I have decided to contest the assembly election. I have also resigned from the primary membership of the BJP,” Naik said, while addressing a news conference in Mapusa.
He has filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate for the assembly elections from the Saligao constituency.
A loyal BJP karyakarta, Naik, who was elected as the ZP from the Reis Magos as a BJP nominee for the second consecutive term in 2020, put in his papers after the party overlooked him in the assembly elections from Saligao.
“The voting percentage for the ZP elections was low due to the pandemic but still people had given me a lead of 3,000 votes in Reis Magos,” he said.
Interestingly, in spite of having been elected for the second time, Naik was ignored for the post of the North Goa ZP chairmanship which went to a novice Karthik Kudnekar.
He said by overlooking him as the party nominee for the assembly polls, the BJP had done grave injustice to him and the diehard supporters of the party.
“Everyone knows it,” he said, to a question whether BJP was no longer a party of the karyakartas.
He also claimed that several other parties had approached him to contest on their symbol but he decided to respect the wishes of the people and contest the election as an Independent candidate.
According to Naik, both the national parties were trying to misguide the voters in Saligao. “The BJP is spreading the word that I am very much with the party while the Congress has been saying that I am supporting their party,” he said.
The BJP ticket in Saligao was issued to former minister, Jayesh Salgaonkar, who in 2017 was elected as an MLA under the banner of the Goa Forward Party.
Incidentally, Rupesh Naik had defeated Jayesh Salgaonkar in his first ZP elections from Reis Magos in 2015.
... And also in Cuncolim
