Goa Tribal Welfare Minister and Independent MLA Govind Gaude on Tuesday announced that he will contest the upcoming legislative assembly election on a BJP ticket. While Gaude supported the BJP government after the 2017 assembly polls, his announcement to join the saffron party comes a day after the BJP saw its first minister exit the party on Monday.
“I have decided to contest the upcoming election on a BJP ticket. I have done this to honour the wishes of my supporters. I will resign today as minister and MLA and then I will enter the BJP,” Gaude said on Tuesday. He is expected to join the BJP at an induction ceremony to be held at the state party headquarters in Panaji on Tuesday evening.
Gaude had defeated Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) president Deepak Dhavalikar by a margin of 4,686 votes in the previous assembly polls in 2017. He was one of the two Independent MLAs who supported the BJP government led by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in 2017. Gaude, unlike the other alliance partners who were ousted from the cabinet after 12 MLAs defected to the BJP in 2019, was retained in the cabinet even after Pramod Sawant took over as chief minister after Parrikar’s death in 2019.
He held the portfolios of tribal welfare, art and culture, civil supplies and price control.
Goa BJP President Sadanand Tanavade welcomed Gaude’s decision to join the party and said in a tweet, “BJP, without a second thought, will come into power once again with a full majority and serve the people of Goa.”
Gaude will be the fourth sitting MLA to be inducted into the BJP after MLAs Ravi Naik from the Congress, Jayesh Salgaonkar from the Goa Forward Party and Rohan Khaunte, another Independent, were inducted into the party ahead of the upcoming polls on February 14. The party has also seen four of its MLAs exit, including minister Micheal Lobo and MLAs Alina Saldanha, Carlos Almeida and Pravin Zantye.
Independent MLA and minister to join BJP in Goa
