PANAJI
Putting all speculations to rest about the constituency he will contest from, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar seems to have finally decided to contest from his bastion, Panaji.
Accordingly, Sidharth Kuncalienker tendered his resignation as Panaji MLA on Wednesday morning to the State Legislative Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant, paving way for Parrikar to contest from Panaji constituency to get elected as an MLA. Panaji has been represented by BJP Since 1994.
Speaking to media persons after submitting his resignation, Kuncalienker said, “After the Assembly election results were announced on March 11, we all had unanimously resolved that Parrikar should return to the State as the Chief Minister. As the State received a fractured mandate, we needed a capable person who could form the government taking everyone together. Even the alliance partners had demanded that Parrikar should head the government. So he returned to Goa sacrificing his defence minister to provide a stable government to the State.”
Stating that Parrikar has to get elected as an MLA within six months after he was sworn-in as the Chief Minister, Kuncalienker said, “After taking into confidence all the Party workers and my well-wishers, I have tendered resignation as Panaji MLA.”
Questioned over his political future, Kuncalienker informed, “I am a BJP karyakarta and will continue to be so. The Party had given me this post and I have full faith in the Party’s decisions. The decision that they have conveyed to me today will definitely be in my interest as well as in the interest of the party workers.”
Expressing contentment over Panjimites being lucky to get a readymade chief minister, he said, “It is a good decision in the interest of Panaji too as the development will be faster.”
When asked if he was a custodian of Parrikar’s Panaji seat, he said, “MLA is not a custodian, but an elected representative of the people. When the by-polls were held in 2015, people once again gave an opportunity to BJP to represent Panaji. In 2017 too they reposed faith in me and let me represent the constituency despite heavyweights contesting against me.”
When asked if it is a sacrifice made by him, he said, “When a person leaves his defence ministry and returns in the interest of the State as well as Panaji, it is a bigger sacrifice. I am a common karyakarta and we have to do whatever the Party tells us.”
Kuncalienkar was first elected to the State Legislative Assembly in March 2015 after Manohar Parrikar was elevated as the Defence Minister in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet. After his two year stint as Panaji MLA, he was re-elected to the seat during the 2017 Assembly polls after defeating Taleigao bigwig Atanasio Monserrate by over a thousand votes.
