PANAJI : BJP’s Cumbharjua block president and an aspirant of the party candidature in the constituency for the 2017 assembly elections, Siddhesh Naik, the son of Union Minister for AYUSH Shripad Naik, has said the party workers will not support any “outsider” in the elections.
Referring to former Congress MLA from Cumbharjua Pandurang Madkaikar, who was recently inducted in the BJP, Siddhesh Naik said, “Our demand is clear that the party should consider any of our karyakarta for the candidature, not an outsider. It could be anybody but not an outsider. It need not be even me, but it should be based on the wishes of the karyakartas, and it cannot be an outsider.”
Speaking to this daily, he said that majority of the party workers in the constituency are firm that the cadre would not work for Madkaikar.
“We have communicated our stand to the state president and other senior leaders of the party that we are opposed to Madkaikar,” he added.
Siddhesh Naik stated that the workers have been opposed to Madkaikar from the beginning and they hope that the leadership would consider the stand of the cadre.
“We are loyal workers of the party… we are waiting for the party to take the decision. Once the party takes its decision we will decide our future course of action because we cannot work for Madkaikar,” he said.
Naik said that on Monday the BJP workers in the constituency met Shripad Naik and asked him to take up the matter at the national level.
“He has assured them that he will definitely put up the matter before the national leaders,” he said.
When asked if the party had taken the cadre into confidence as stated by Defence Minister Monhar Parrikar, he said, “Since we have been opposing him from the beginning we had informed them. They had said that before inducting him the party will once again call us and discuss with us. But that did not happen.”