PANAJI
Notwithstanding MLAs Ramesh Tawadkar and Digambar Kamat's unwillingness to be candidates for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said that the party’s decision is paramount and that a “personal view” does not dictate the party’s concerns.
The BJP State unit had submitted the names of five probable candidates -- Digambar Kamat, Ramesh Tawadkar, Chandrakant Kavlekar, Narendra Sawaikar and Damodar Naik -- to the party’s Parliamentary Board for final decision. However, Kamat and Tawadkar expressed their reservation to the decision.
“In BJP, there is nothing called who is interested or not interested. Once, the high command takes a decision, it is paramount. BJP’s ideology is Nation first, then Party and then your self-interest. They were free to express their views but the final call will be taken by the party based on winability and one has to abide by it,” Sawant said.
Sawant said winability is the sole criteria set to select the South Goa candidate. “We are confident of winning the South Goa seat as people of South are also with Narendra Modi,” he added.
After winning the South seat in 2014, the party faced a defeat in 2019 polls with a very minimal margin.
With regards to North Goa candidature, the Chief Minister said “it is an open secret…we have to just wait for an official announcement from the party”. The statement hints at candidature of Shirpad Naik, who will be contesting from the constituency for the sixth consecutive term.
Naik has been winning the seat since 1999. “People of North Goa have elected BJP for the last five terms and they will continue to do that even in 2024,” he said.
Sawant said that the party is likely to announce the names of candidates before the Lok Sabha election dates are announced. “We have requested the party to announce the candidates at the earliest so that we have enough time to reach out to the voters,” he said.
