Goa Elections 2022: Utpal Parrikar Opens Up On ‘Most Difficult Decision’, To File Nomination On Thursday
Parrikar junior will be drawn against former party member Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate in a high-stakes battle for the Panaji Assembly constituency.
New Delhi: Fresh from resigning from the primary membership of the BJP a week ago, Utpal Parrikar, son of former Defence minister and former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, has said that he will enter the fray in the poll-bound coastal state as an independent candidate and file his nomination papers on Thursday.
Parrikar junior will be drawn against former party member Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate in a high-stakes battle for the Panaji Assembly constituency.
A report in NDTV quoted Utpal Parrikar as saying that severing ties with the BJP was the ‘most difficult’ decision. He added that he could even consider pulling out of the contest if his former party nominates a ‘good candidate’ from Panaji. The remark was an oblique reference to the criminal cases against Montserrate.
Once seen as an arch rival of the former Defence minister and Sangh stalwart, Montserrate was one of 10 Congress MLAs who resigned from the grand old party in July, 2019 and gravitated to the saffron camp. The criminal cases against Montserrate includes one of rape on a teenaged girl.
Going into a sulk after not being considered for a ticket to contest the seat that his father represented for more than twenty years, Utpal Parrikar sundered ties with the party weeks ahead of the February 14 polls, dealing a blow to the saffron camp.
He later went public with his plan to contest as an Independent.
Speaking to news agency Press Trust of India, Parrikar likened the denial of a poll ticket to what he claimed were attempts to push his father out of the BJP in 1994.
However, he said though he is no longer with the saffron party, the BJP will always remain in his heart, adding that his struggle was to restore the party’s soul. Taking aim at the state unit of the party, he claimed that the BJP had lost ground in the state.
Opening up on his “most difficult decision”, Parrikar said though not happy about it, there are certain situations that call for ‘tough’ calls.
On his decision to enter the fray as an independent, Parrikar was earlier quoted as saying by news agency ANI that he has inherited the ‘same values’ that saw his father win people’s support and hold on to the Panaji seat for so long. He added that it was time that he stood up for the values that his father embodied.
Invoking the 2019 bypoll, which was contested to fill the seat that fell vacant after his father’s death, Utpal Parrikar said he was denied a ticket in spite of having people support but he ‘respected’ the decision as he had faith in the party’s leadership.
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