PANJIM: Governance in Goa, including crucial decisions on pending issues, will take a back-seat till October 15, as the state leadership headed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is busy campaigning for the BJP, ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections. Parrikar, a senior member of Team Modi along with most of his cabinet colleagues is camping in Maharashtra and the Konkan belt.
The chief minister’s eight day election tour of Maharashtra occurs in the midst of the finalization of crucial mining issues related to lease renewals and loan settlement of borrowers. It has been nearly six months since the Supreme Court lifted its mining ban on April 21.
However, sources say that the chief minister will come down to the state for a short while due to a happy development, before he continues on the campaign tour.
Parrikar began his Maharashtra election campaign on Sunday afternoon by addressing public meetings in the villages of Pune –Chinchvad and Bhor. On Monday morning he reached Mumbai where he addressed voters from Jogeshwari, Ghatkopar and Colaba. He also held discussions with a group called ‘Friends of BJP’, there.
On October 9, Parrikar will hold meetings in Aurangabad, Jalna and Latur, followed by Nagpur and Bandra on October 10. On October 11, he will address the public in Nashik, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar, from where he will head to the Konkan belt, which would be the last day of campaign.
BJP workers under the leadership of state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar are in Maharashtra and Konkan since last week. On Sunday, the chief minister was accompanied by cabinet colleagues including Mahadev Naik, Milind Naik, Dilip Parulekar, while Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza is to leave on Tuesday morning. Almost all BJP legislators have camped in the Konkan.
Parrikar was one of the star campaigners for Lok Sabha polls, held in April-May. Soon after the Lok Sabha polls were declared, he was selected by Team Modi to reach out to the intellectual class across the country and ensure it doesn’t move away from BJP. This time, the Goa chief minister would be reaching out to the intellectual class along with making some door to door visits, given his stated simplicity.
