Next Goa govt will work under Parrikar: Amit Shah

Panaji: A day after BJP president Amit Shah said the next Goa government would function under Manohar Parrikar’s leadership, party’s state chief Vinay Tendulkar on Tuesday claimed that people want the defence minister to be brought back to Goa.

Mr Shah said the next government in the state will “function under (Manohar) Parrikar’s leadership, irrespective of his posting”. “Goa has given a big asset to the country in Manohar Parrikar. There is a huge demand for Mr Parrikar in Delhi and also here in Goa. The people of Goa demand that we should send Mr Parrikar back to the state,” Mr Shah said addressing a public meeting in Vasco town. Goa will go to polls to elect the 40-member House on February 4.

“(Prime Minister) Narendrabhai (Modi) needs him (Manohar Parrikar) at the Centre as well. We will decide after elections where Mr Parrikar will be working. But let me assure you that wherever Mr Parrikar may be working, the Goa government will function under his leadership,” the BJP president said. “Mr Parrikar has good mass contact, that is why there is demand coming up from people that he should be brought back to Goa. But the decision on it would be taken by elected MLAs after the polls,” Mr Tendulkar said.

However, he refused to divulge on the party’s strategy in this regard. “Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar has clarified that the MLAs will decide their leader. The decision will be taken after the election,” he said. On Mr Shah’s statement on Monday about Mr Parrikar, Mr Tendulkar said, “Party president has said that even if he is not made CM, he will be controlling the affairs of Goa.”

“He (Shah) must have said it depending on the demands and expectations of the people. At present, Parrikar and union ministers Shripad Naik  and Nitin Gadkari are leading the party’s campaign in Goa,” he said. After Mr Gadkari had recently fired up speculations about the chief ministerial candidate  in poll-bound Goa, Shah on Monday said the next government in the state will “function under Parrikar’s leadership, irrespective of his posting.”

Asked about RSS’s support, Mr Tendulkar said, “Sangh is always with swayamsevakas. They (swayamsevakas) never interfere in politics but  their blessings are with us. RSS is with us for this election too,” he said.

Regarding the newly formed Goa Suraksha Manch led by rebel sangh leader Subhash Velingkar, he said, “He (Velingkar) had said that they will form the next government but now they are contesting only on four seats. I don’t think they will be able to win on even one seat. There will not be damage to us. Cadres were with certain ideology. They are with us.”

Tendulkar said BJP would be releasing its Goa manifesto on January 27, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting in the poll-bound state. “The experience of last five years is being used to draft the manifesto.  We have fulfilled 90 per cent assurances given in the 2012 manifesto,” he said.

The Congress today attacked Mr Shah over his statement that the next Goa government will be functioning under the leadership of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar saying  that “Goa is not a union territory to be governed by Delhi.”

“It is for the people of Goa to think on what Shah said. We are not a Union territory to be ruled from Delhi. We are a full-fledged developed state,” Goa’s Leader of Opposition Pratapsinh Rane told reporters here.