PANAJI
On an unusually warm August day, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday was faced with an additional dose of heat in Mandrem, where he was caught between a red hot frying political pan and a fiery rivalry.
Sawant presided over two party functions facilitated by ex-CM Laxmikant Parsekar and his archrival and sitting MLA Dayanand Sopte, in which the groups bickered and slandered against each other publicly, putting the Chief Minister in a tough bind.
While Parsekar accused Sopte of not doing enough development in the Mandrem constituency and the party leadership of ignoring the party’s original cadre from the constituency, Sopte and company questioned Sawant’s decision to attend a parallel party function organised by Parsekar on the same day.
The Chief Minister, however, carefully chose to tread the middle ground at both the political meetings.
“I cannot directly declare the ticket. At the right time, the (party’s) central committee will decide... Even my ticket will be declared by the central committee,” Sawant told the meeting organised by Sopte.
Justifying his presence at the meeting convened by Parsekar, a former Chief Minister and a two-term state BJP president who was defeated by Sopte (who contested on a Congress ticket in 2017), Sawant said that while the issues raised by Parsekar and his supporters would be placed before the BJP’s state and central committees, a ticket had not been guaranteed to the ex-CM.
“I went to the meeting called by the ex-CM and he explained his issues to me. Just because he has expressed these issues, that does not mean you have to fear. Dayanand Sopte is an old BJP worker. He supported the BJP and maintained a word of honour given by former CM Manohar Parrikar. Sopte was with BJP when the party needed him,” Sawant said at the Sopte-organised meeting.
“Sopte knows the BJP system. You (workers) will be taken into confidence. (The party gives a ticket to) a candidate who works hard and Sopte is doing a good job... At this time I cannot say that the ticket has been allotted (to Sopte),” Sawant said, adding that he had not given any such assurance to Parsekar too.
Earlier, Sawant also did the balancing act at the meeting organised by the former Chief Minister, refusing to neither endorse, nor critique the accusations levelled by Parsekar’s supporters against Sopte, who they charged with carrying out little development in Mandrem and shuning the ‘original’ party workers in the constituency.
“I will not comment on development and other such issues. But one thing I will say, the issues you have raised here will be raised at the state level and with the core committee and with the central leadership, including before the national president too. Whatever decision the central leadership will take, it will happen after speaking to (Parsekar) sir because he commands respect at the national level,” Sawant said.
This is the first time in the BJP’s recent pre-poll popular outreach programme that constitutional rivalries have come to such a head, with two rival groups hosting two separate worker meetings.
