PANAJI : With the death of Panaji MLA Manohar Parrikar, the choice of candidates of the Congress for the two Lok Sabha seats may just change, as the Congress now has to decide on a candidate for the Panaji bypoll seat, which is yet to be announced.
And Congress president Girish Chodankar, who contested the seat against Parrikar in 2017 may just be chosen to contest the seat for the Congress again this time round. Although Chodankar downplayed the question when it was posed to him at Thursday’s press conference at the party headquarters, he did not rule out the possibility of him contesting from Panaji.
“It’s the party’s decision, and that is a collective decision, and not my own. If the party asks me, my bag is ready. I’m a person who’ll come forward if the party so wants,” Chodankar told the media. “If they decide that I need to fight the elections from Panaji, then I will. I am a soldier of the party, not like a major or a captain at the back,” he said.
“I got a lot of calls from the people of Panaji a day ago asking me to contest the seat. There are lots of elections coming up, and I’m ready from anything,” he reiterated. Chodankar said that he would continue being there for the people of Panaji, and has been trying to get them at least 10 hours of water supply a day.
From the Goa Forward Party (GFP), former legislator Atanasio Monserrate has also expressed a desire to contest the Panaji seat, but it is yet to be seen how the situation will play out, since the GFP is an ally of the current BJP-led coalition.
Meanwhile, Chodankar alleged that the allies in Goa are being kept by the BJP through both money and blackmail. “You know how things are handled by (BJP national president) Amit Shah himself and how money plays a crucial role. They kept the allies with them through money and blackmail. The BJP doesn’t use only one tactic, they have many. They are experts,” alleged Chodankar.
