Panaji: The Goa BJP on Friday January 28 claimed to have managed to rein in a potential rebellion by Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik’s son Siddesh, who was denied a ticket to contest the Cumbharjua assembly seat for the February 14 elections.
Speaking to reporters here, Goa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said Siddesh had “agreed” to back the BJP’s official candidate Janita Naik, wife of the party’s sitting MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, who had suffered a brain stroke in 2018.
Madkaikar has recovered since but the party’s parliamentary board, the apex decision-making body on finalisation of election tickets, earlier this week nominated his wife for the ticket, ignoring the claim of Siddesh Naik.
“In a democracy, it is not wrong to seek a ticket. But if things do not go as per wish after asking for a ticket, then it is extremely important to stand with the party,” Tanavade said.
“The biggest test for a party worker is to stand with the party, despite things not going his or her way. Siddesh Naik has passed that test,” he also said.
After his claim for a ticket was rejected by the BJP earlier this week, Siddesh had threatened to contest as an independent candidate, before senior BJP leaders in the state convinced him otherwise.
Tanavade said that Siddesh had been appointed as the secretary of the party’s state unit in-charge of the Vasco assembly constituency.
Siddesh is the son of Shripad Naik, the BJP’s tallest leader in the state after the erstwhile Manohar Parrikar.
Incidentally, Parrikar’s son, Utpal, has also rebelled against the BJP, after he was denied a ticket to contest from the Panaji assembly seat, which was represented by his father since 1994.
Utpal Parrikar has filed his nomination as an independent candidate.
