Former Goa CM Laxmikant Parsekar  |  Photo Credit: ANI
Panaji, Goa: In a major setback for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa, former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Saturday announced that he will resign from the saffron party after being denied a ticket for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
“I’ll formally submit my resignation by this evening,” Laxmikant Parsekar told ANI.
The BJP has nominated sitting MLA Dayanand Sopte from the Mandrem Assembly constituency. Sopte defeated Parsekar in 2017 state polls as a Congress candidate but joined the ruling party in 2019.
This comes a day after former CM Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal announced his plan to contest the polls from Panaji as an independent saying that quitting the party was the “most difficult” decision.
Utpal took the decision to contest as an independent after he was denied a ticket by the BJP from Panaji, a constituency which his father and party veteran had represented for more than two decades.
The BJP has nominated from Panaji its sitting MLA Atanasio Monserrate, one of ten legislators who had joined the saffron party in July 2019 after quitting Congress.
However, Utpal Parrikar earlier today stated that he is ready to withdraw from the poll race if the BJP fields a “good candidate” from the Panaji constituency.