PANJIM: As expected, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose Sidharth Kuncalienker over former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal to contest the Panjim by-poll, slated on May 19. Party’s Central Election Committee secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda announced the candidature on Sunday, exactly on the eve of the last date of filing of nomination.
Kuncalienker now joins the four-cornered fight for the seat that fell vacant in lieu of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s death on March 17. Though BJP is the last to declare its candidate, the party is confident of retaining the constituency held for 25 years.
“It doesn’t matter that BJP was the last to field its candidate. What matters the most is victory and we are 100 per cent confident to win the seat once again,” BJP State president Vinay Tendulkar informed Herald soon after the official announcement.
Two-time MLA, Kuncalienker in the past elections has given a tough fight to his contenders. In his first election battle in February 2015 by-poll, Kuncalienker garnered 9,989 votes by defeating Congress’ Surendra Furtado who managed to get 4,621 votes. The by-poll was necessitated as Parrikar was elevated to the Centre as Union Defence Minister in the Narendra Modi-led cabinet.
In March 2017 general assembly elections, Kuncalienker secured 7924 votes in what was a close victory against then United Goans Party candidate Atanasio Monserrate, who polled 6855 votes. He then sacrificed his seat to pave way for Parrikar, the then Defence Minister, to contest the by-poll so as to enter Goa Legislative Assembly.
The BJP candidate is confident to lead the party to victory this time too stating he will also fulfill Parrikar’s dream for Panjim and focus on infrastructural and human development.
His fight this time will be against Monserrate, who has now switched to Congress; Aam Admi Party’s Valmiki Naik, and Goa Suraksha Manch’s president and Parrikar’s mentor Subhash Velingkar.
While Monserrate has already displayed show of strength while filing his nomination on Friday, Kuncalienker launched his election campaign soon after the official announcement.
The Panjim seat has been a BJP-dominated constituency since 1994 when Parrikar became the MLA.
After his death last month, the party saw differences among its workers and office bearers over who should be Parrikar’s successor. While one group backed Utpal, another group demanded that Kuncalienker be given the ticket considering that he sacrificed his seat for Parrikar in 2017.
