Goa: BJP leader Laxmikant Parsekar says party shouldn’t take him for granted
That all is not well within BJP was proved again with former Goa chief minister and BJP leader Laxmikant Parsekar threatening to rebel against party saying the party shouldn’t take him for granted. The news of BJP trying to field former Congress MLA Dayanand Sopte from Mandrem Assembly bypolls, Parsekar seems to have serious reservation on that. Sopte along with another Congress leader have recently left party and joined BJP.
Parsekar unleashed a veiled threat saying BJP should stop taking him for granted. Parsekar made the remark a couple of days after Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Girish Chodankar called on him at Mandrem, from where Parsekar contested and lost against Sopte.
“I will not reveal all my cards now. There is a feeling in BJP that I will never rebel against the party or I will never leave it (party). Sometimes, your virtues act as negatives and that has happened in my case. But this time, the party should not take me for granted,” Parsekar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. Confirmed that he met Chodankar, Parsekar refused to divulge the details of the meeting.
“These days there are many people who come and meet me. Chodankar had also come. There were some discussions,” he said. Parsekar said the Mandrem block of the BJP still considers him (Parsekar) as the candidate from the constituency.
“Let the elections be announced. Let the candidates be announced…then I will reveal my stand,” he stated. Chodankar, when contacted, also revealed the Congress has been meeting all the “anti-BJP forces”.
“We are rallying against Sopte, who is the probable BJP candidate in the constituency. We will defeat him in the constituency and our exercise in that direction has begun,” he remarked.
Parsekar, who is one of the oldest members of the saffron party, served as the state chief minister from 2014 to 2017 after joining the ranks in 1994.
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