New Delhi, January 20: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced that Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will contest the state Assembly polls from Sanquelim constituency while Deputy CM Manohar Ajgaonkar will be pitted from Margao seat.
BJP general secretary Arun Singh and Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis released a list of 34 candidates for the upcoming Goa elections.
The elections for the 40-member Goa Assembly will be held in single-phase on February 14.
As per the list, Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate, the current Panaji MLA, has been given the ticket while former CM Manohar Parrikar’s son Utapal Parrikar was denied a ticket for the polls. Both Aam Aadmi Party and Shiv Sena have backed Utpal to contest the election.
Responding to a query about the decision not to field Utpal from Panjim which happens to be Manohar Parrikar’s constituency, Fadnavis said, “For our party, the Parrikar family is always our family. But from the seat that Utpal wanted to contest from we already have a sitting MLA and it would not be fair to drop the sitting MLA. However, we had given him the option of contesting from two other seats and the talks are progressing in that direction.”
