PANAJI: A day after being denied the
BJP ticket for Cumbharjua, Union minister for state
Shripad
Naik's
son
Siddhesh has decided to support the party’s choice of sitting MLA Pandurang Madkaikar’s wife and Old Goa sarpanch Janita for the assembly election.
Immediately after
Siddhesh
decided not to contest the elections as an independent candidate, BJP appointed him as party
secretary
and asked him to work in Vasco constituency.
On whether he
supports
Janita, Siddesh said, “The party has given me the responsibility of Vasco constituency. I will work in Vasco. With regards to Cumbharjua, BJP has an official candidate there and party workers will work for the candidate. My supporters will vote for the party candidate.”
After he was denied the Cumbharjua ticket on Thursday, Siddhesh held a meeting with his supporters to discuss his future course of action. Backed by his supporters, he had expressed willingness to rebel against the party, but a senior party functionary met Siddhesh and convinced him not to quit and contest as an independent candidate. This has been the second time that BJP has denied him the ticket to contest the assembly election. During the 2017 assembly elections, former chief minister Manohar Parrikar had inducted Madkaikar in to BJP and had given him the ticket to contest from Cumbharjua.
BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said his first opinion was that Siddhesh should get the ticket, but “my opinion cannot be the party’s opinion”.
“I can only recommend a name, but the final decision is taken in Delhi,” he said. Both Siddhesh and Madkaikar’s wife were strong contenders for the ticket in Cumbharjua.
Reacting to Madkaikar’s statement that Siddhesh can stand for election but he would not get even 500 votes, Tanavade said that he has called Madkaikar and told him that he cannot repeat such statements.
Tanavade said that BJP wanted to get Siddhesh into state politics. The party held several rounds of discussions before the final list was declared to avoid members getting upset. As Siddhesh was one of the contenders and his name did not figure in the list, he has been appointed as secretary, Tanavade said.