PANAJI
BJP's Lok Sabha Election in-charge for Goa Ashish Sood skirted questions about the party’s strategic shift and the delay in finalizing South Goa candidate. Sood, who arrived in Goa on Tuesday coinciding with ongoing discussions among party leaders about probable women candidates for South seat, stated that discussions are taking place in Delhi.
“There was no discussion about the South Goa seat here. That’s being handled in Delhi,” he responded to media queries outside the BJP headquarters.
Sulakshana Sawant, wife of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and a leading contender for the nominations, also declined to comment on the latest development stating, “These decisions are made by the party.”
The BJP Goa had initially proposed five names of probable candidates for the South of whom Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar and ex-CM Digambar Kamat cited disinterest. With this vacuum created and the party deciding to give equal opportunity to women too, the high command decided to focus on shortlisting female candidates. This led to discussions with names of Sulakshana Sawant, Shefali Vaidya, Vidhya Gaude, and Suvarna Tendulkar surfacing. The shortlisted names will be added to the list of ex-MP Narendra Sawaikar, ex-Deputy CM Chandrakant Kavlekar and Damu Naik. CM Pramod Sawant and BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade have already stated that the Parliamentary Board will take another 4-5 days to finalize the SG candidate's name.
Meanwhile, the meeting also discussed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to women across the country on Wednesday, on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The party is reportedly planning a strategy to place special emphasis on women voters in key battleground states with PM Modi expected to make announcements in this regard.
