Team Herald
NEW DELHI: The BJP leadership has asked Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar not to quit his Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh until after the Presidential elections in July. Not only Parrikar, but Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya have been asked to continue as the Lok Sabha members. A party leader said the Constitution allows them six months to become a member of their legislative from the date of joining the new government and as such they can continue as MPs till September.
As MPs, the value of votes of each of them will be 706. Noting that Parrikar cannot get elected to the Goa Assembly before the presidential elections slated in July, the leadership noted that even otherwise his vote value as an MLA would have been just 20.
The party has asked Parrikar to choose the Assembly constituency from which he intends to contest, quitting as soon as the polling in the Presidential poll is over to enable the Election Commission hold the by-election on time to meet the 6-month deadline for becoming an MLA.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is short of 24,522 votes to get its candidate elected and as such the resignations of three now would have increased this shortfall by another 2,124 votes.
Goa does not have the legislative council unlike Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanath and Maurya can easily take the legislative council route to qualify as part of the government, but the party wants them elected to the Assembly as that gives them more legitimacy. The party has to also look for the third Assembly seat in Uttar Pradsh for another deputy CM Dinesh Sharma who has resigned as a the mayor of Lucknow.
