New Delhi: In yet another setback to the BJP ahead of the Goa Assembly polls, former Chief Minister and senior party leader Laxmikant Parsekar on Saturday said that he would resign from the ruling party after being denied a party ticket.
Speaking to news agency ANI over the phone, Parsekar said, “I would be formally submitting my resignation to the party on Saturday evening.”
The 65-year-old leader currently heads the party’s manifesto committee ahead of the state elections and is also a member of the BJP core committee.
A three-time MLA from Mandrem, Laxmikant Parsekar was sworn in as the Goa Chief Minister on November 8, 2014, after Manohar Parrikar was inducted into the Union Cabinet.
However, he suffered a crushing defeat in the 2017 Assembly polls where he lost to Congress' Dayanand Sopte by a margin of 7,119 votes. Subsequently, Sopte switched to BJP in 2019 with nine other members and was re-elected from Mandrem.
Parsekar’s decision to resign from the BJP comes after the saffron party fielded Sopte from Mandrem, the former’s home turf.
He said that he has decided to disassociate himself from the party and contest from the seat independently, as per ANI.
Laxmikant Parsekar’s call to quit the saffron camp comes a day after Utpal Parrikar, son of another former Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar, announced his decision to resign from the party due to the same reason of being denied a ticket ahead of the Assembly polls.