PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday made an unusual gesture when he paid floral tributes to the late Manohar Parrikar at the latter's Miramar memorial on a day the new Mopa airport was also christened after the former chief minister.
Sawant on Sunday morning proceeded to Miramar where he paid tributes to Parrikar known to be his political mentor.
Sawant, however, has faced some severe criticism from the band of Parrikar loyalists within his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for what they call deliberately seeking to trample the late leader's legacy.
The Parrikar loyalists, particularly those from Panaji, began targeting Sawant, especially after the former's older son Utpal Parrikar was humiliatingly denied the party ticket to contest the 2019 Panaji bye-election held two months after the leader's death.
Utpal had resigned from the party and contested unsuccessfully against Monserrate as an Independent.
Meanwhile, Utpal expressed satisfaction that the Mopa airport, which he said was his father's dream, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
He, however, declined to go into the issue of naming the airport after his father.
The issue of naming the airport had shot into prominence and some level of controversy after a section, including former union law minister Ramakant Khalap and former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar, had launched a public movement to name it after Goa's first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar.
