Party virtually slams door on Mauvin eyeing BJP ticket; Names Nanoskar as candidate
the goan I network
VASCO
Speaking to media along the sidelines of a function at Headland Sada on Tuesday evening, Dhavalikar asserted that their claim to the Dabolim seat was non-negotiable.
“Our committee has decided to demand for 14 seats and Dabolim is one of those seats,” said Dhavalikar.
“We are a coalition partner with BJP and during the seat-sharing discussions, we will place our committee’s demand for 14 seats. It is definite that Premanand Nasnoskar, our candidate who lost the last assembly election with a narrow margin, will be our candidate from Dabolim constituency,” said Dhavalikar.
Justifying the decision to retain Nanoskar as their candidate for Dabolim constituency, Dhavalikar added: “During the 2012 assembly election, we had declared Nanoskar as our candidate barely 16 days prior to the election and we got only 13 days to campaign. If we had got more time to campaign, Nanoskar would have been the MGP MLA from Dabolim constituency.”
“We do not want a candidate who has changed parties many times and for such candidates, there is no place either in MGP or BJP,” affirmed Dhavalikar, hinting at a Congress MLA keen to contest on the BJP ticket at the next assembly elections.
“One such politician has been involved in many parties and the governments have invariably collapsed whenever this politician has lent his support,” Dhavalikar added.
Asked if he would stake claim to the chief minister’s post if the MGP were to win over seven seats in the next assembly election, Dhavalikar replied: “It is too premature to comment on this.”
He, however, hurried to add: “The BJP and MGP are coalition partners and such issues will be discussed later.”
To another query on whether other former Congress MLAs and Congress leaders would join MGP before the next assembly elections, Dhavalikar said: “The MGP will take only those Congress leaders who have performed and have not jumped from one party to another.”
Dabolim BJP Block in catch-22 situation
VASCO: MGP’s refusal to part with its claim to Dabolim constituency for the next assembly polls could pose problems for the BJP block in Dabolim constituency. While Dabolim Congress MLA Mauvin Godinho did not respond to calls for his reaction to Dhavalikar’s statements on MGP’s claim to Dabolim constituency, Dabolim BJP Block President Sada Shetkar did not wish to react. “The BJP party has not yet declared the candidate for Dabolim and as such, I cannot comment on the statement made by Dhavalikar.” “We go by the party’s decision and accordingly, we will strictly go by the candidate selected by the party, whether it is Godinho or any other candidate,” said Shetkar.
