PANAJI: The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to elect its member of Rajya Sabha (RS) for the first time from Goa, as all alliance partners in the government have pledged to strongly support the candidate decided by its senior partner.
The BJP, in consultation with its alliance partners – Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Goa Forward Party and three Independent legislators, has finalised the name of its state unit president Vinay Tendulkar as the candidate for the lone seat for the Upper House of the Parliament.
On the other hand, former Union minister Ramakant Khalap, former MLA Jitendra Deshprabhu and former Member of Parliament Ramakant Angle have emerged as the frontrunners for the Congress party’s Rajya Sabha candidate.
The current strength of the 40-member state legislative assembly has been reduced to 38 following the resignation of BJP MLA Sidharth Kuncalienkar and Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane. The ruling dispensation has strength of 21 members which include
BJP-12, three each of MGP and the GFP and three Independent legislators, who are supporting the government. On the other hand, the Congress party has 16 MLAs besides the lone MLA of Nationalist Congress Party.
Speaking to this daily on Thursday, NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, who had supported the government on the floor of the House during the vote of confidence on March 16, said that neither has he decided whom to support in the Rajya Sabha election, nor has his party directed him. “I will decide on the voting day on whom to support,” Alemao said, adding that he will not waste his valuable vote.
Legislature Secretary Nilkanth Subhedar said that there will be None Of The Above (NOTA) option for the Rajya Sabha poll.
The election for the lone Rajya Sabha member from Goa will be held on July 21, while the last date for filing of the nomination for the election is July 11. So far, no candidate has filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election.
According to top sources in the Congress party, though the names of Khalap, Deshprabhu and Angle were taken up for discussion during the recent meeting between senior Congress leaders and All India Congress Committee vice president Rahul Gandhi held in New Delhi, neither of these leaders have formally submitted their application nor communicated that they want to contest the election on Congress party ticket.
The source said that the party high command has asked the local leadership and the MLAs to choose any one name from these probable candidates and if the party fails to have a consensus amongst the MLAs on the Rajya Sabha candidate, then the party high command may ask Shantaram Naik to re-contest the election.
Speaking to this daily over telephone, Khalap said, “Till date, there is no communication from the party about my name. If the party decides then I will give it a thought and take a call whether to contest or not.”
All India Congress Committee secretary Girish Chodankar while addressing a press conference in Panaji confirmed that the party high command has sorted out few names as probable candidates for the lone Rajya Sabha seat and has forwarded the names to the Congress Legislative Party for further discussions.
“The CLP members, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president and Goa desk in-charge will take a final call and announce the name in the next two days,” said Chodankar. He claimed that Congress is in talks with the non-BJP parties in the state to have consensus on the candidate.