NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday condemned the recent demand of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) as regards replacement of Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar in order to facilitate talks about the BJP-MGP pre-poll alliance for the forthcoming state assembly election.
Questioning the very authority of the MGP to come out with such a demand, Curchorem MLA of BJP Nilesh Cabral said that if the BJP desires to continue its alliance with the MGP, then it would do so with its own conditions. “The MGP has no right to tell us who should be our Chief Minister,” he maintained, observing that the BJP legislature party will take this decision, and the MGP, which is a ‘minority’ alliance partner, should agree to its “Big Brother.”
Cabral, addressing a press conference at the city BJP headquarters said that the BJP sincerely desires to continue its coalition with the MGP. However, the MGP leaders, instead of discussing their differences with the BJP leaders are discussing them with the media. “We hope that when our leaders namely Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and state assembly election in-charge of the party Nitin Gadkari carry out pre-poll alliance discussions with the MGP, Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar, a more matured person in the MGP is on the other side,” he retorted.
The Curchorem MLA also said that in spite of pressures on the BJP after the 2012 state assembly election, the BJP leaders went ahead and inducted two of the MGP MLAs into the state cabinet, further allocating important portfolios to them. “It is the BJP, which has followed ‘Yuti dharma’ or code of alliance,” he noted.
Tivim MLA Kiran Kandolkar, speaking on the occasion stated that the mood of the people indicates that the BJP will return to power in the state. “Irrespective of the alliance with the MGP during the forthcoming state assembly election, the BJP will win 26 seats,” he said.
The BJP legislators also brushed aside the charge of the MGP that the MGP leaders were not consulted in any matter by the government. “The Dhavalikar brothers are part of the state cabinet and regularly attend the cabinet meetings, where they can freely give their views on the government decisions,” Cabral said.