AGNELO PEREIRA
MAPUSA
Describing former chief minister late Manohar Parrikar as an “adarsh purush”, BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade on Tuesday said BJP did not follow “dynasty” politics and anyone could enter and work for the party.
He also justified the entry into BJP of Taleigao strongman Anatasio Monserrate (Babush), who has rape charges against him as he was yet to be convicted.
“BJP is not anybody’s personal party. Manohar bhai has contributed towards taking the party to such a height. He is our adarsh purush. But BJP does not have dynasty rule. Anyone can join the BJP. If you work you rise in the party,” Tanavade said.
The newly crowned BJP chief was responding to a specific query of The Goan whether he would look towards convincing Utpal Parrikar into joining active and electoral politics while interacting with the media during his visit to the BJP’s district office in Mapusa.
Continuing, Tanavade said there was no question of convincing someone specifically to work for the party.
“He (Utpal Parrikar) is within the party. He is a party worker. We give equal weightage to everyone in our party. Therefore, there is no question of convincing someone specially. Those who feel they want to work for the party, they can,” he said.
Utpal Parrikar, was one of the contenders for the Panaji seat, which fell vacant after his father, Manohar Parrikar’s death.
Interestingly, though BJP offered the party ticket to another BJP stalwart, Francisco D’Souza’s son, Joshua D’Souza in Mapusa, the Panaji ticket was given to former MLA, Siddarth Kuncolienkar, who ultimately lost to Babush Monserrate.
The State BJP chief said that no two leaders were alike and it was not appropriate to compare former CM Manohar Parrikar to current CM Pramod Sawant.
“Everyone has a different working style. A common worker (Pramod Sawant) has become a CM. All party workers feel he is our CM. Pramod Sawant’s adarsh is Manohar Parrikar. You cannot compare a guru to a shishya. Manohar
Parrikar is Manohar Parrikar. Pramod Sawant is Pramod Sawant,” he said.
On whether the BJP had lost the moral right to call itself a ‘party with a difference’ after absorbing the tainted Panaji MLA Anatasio Monserrate into the party, Tanavade said the charges framed against Monserrate were yet to be proved in a court of law.
“Having charges is one thing and it being proved is another. We cannot say anything before the charges are proved. People have elected him. He has a right to be MLA and elected representative,” the BJP chief said.
Tanavade said BJP did not have an absolute majority and therefore other MLAs decided to join the party.
“They had faith that if they remain within BJP, the government will run well because there is a BJP government at the Centre. They also believe that only BJP can bring about development. Therefore many Congress MLAs are joining BJP,” he said.
He, however, said there was no need to import more MLAs from other parties and the present government was doing very well.
“We have put a stop on others joining (the BJP). No need to think about it. We will give a good government with the 27 MLAs that we have. CM is meeting people and is handling Goa issues well. We are fully backing him as a party on Mhadei and mining issues. Both matters are in court. We will offer whatever support government needs from the party on these issues,” he said.
‘BJP will conduct awareness on CAA’
MAPUSA: Stating that the party will conduct awareness programme on the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA), BJP State President Sadanand Tanavade said all new mandal members would be sensitized about the Act. “Besides conducting awareness programme, we will be distributing pamphlets explaining about the new CAA. Door to door distribution of the pamphlets will also be carried out,” Tanavade said.
He said the opposition Congress tried a lot of tricks to oppose CAA but could muster only 200 people for the protests.
“Out of five Congress MLAs, one or two were missing. On the contrary, workers came from all constituencies for the BJP rally in favour of CAA. All MLAs, ministers attended the rally. 25,000 workers came from all constituencies,” he said.
On the Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections, the BJP chief said the party will take all MLAs and workers in confidence and finalise and declare candidates.
“As decided, ZP election will be held on party lines. We will soon start the process of selecting the candidates,” he said.
He said soon after ZP polls the civic elections will take place in the State but the State government has not decided whether it will be contested on party lines.
“We have never contested civic elections on party lines. We will create infrastructure where we can win all elections,” Tanavade said.
