PANAJI
Bhartiya Janata Party’s North Goa MP, Shripad Naik has sought to play down talk of a serious rift between him and Union Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar who has been calling the shots in the State BJP.
In hurried comments to the press, Naik clarified that he only meant that the decision to induct former Congress Cumbharjua MLA, Pandurang Madkaikar was wrong.
“When the question of inducting Madkaikar into the party had come up, I had said that it was a wrong decision. The decision of who the BJP ticket for Cumbharjua goes to will be decided by the party,” Naik said.
When pressed to answer whether his son and ticket aspirant, Siddhesh Naik would quit and contest as an independent, Naik mumbled in the negative.
Despite his apparent backing down, the decision to induct Madkaikar is unlikely to go down well with the BJP rank and file in the constituency who for nearly a decade have opposed Madkaikar.
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(Also see pg 3)
