VASCO
Making it clear that the MGP would not compromise on its claim to the Dabolim seat, PWD Minister and MGP leader Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar on Tuesday also stated that politicians who have shifted across different parties should have no place in either the MGP or BJP.
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.”
Asked if any BJP ministers or MLAs had approached him to join the MGP, Dhavalikar declined to comment.
Meanwhile, taunting the Aam Admi Party (AAP) for attempting to contest the assembly polls, Dhavalikar said those helping AAP in Goa would be foolish to do so.
Dhavalikar claimed that AAP's plans to contest the forthcoming assembly polls would make no difference to his party.
Lashing out at the AAP, particularly at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Dhavlikar said: “Kejriwal lost everything in Delhi, how will AAP affect the voteshare of MGP?”
“Everyone knows what is happening in Delhi with series of complaints getting registered against AAP Delhi AAP leaders. Recently, a bribery complaint has been lodged against the AAP MLA. I feel that if somebody helps AAP in Goa, then they are fools (to do so),” added Dhavalikar.
