PANJIM: Congress is preparing to field a non-Congressman as their candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Goa.
Leader of the Opposition, Chandrakant Kavalekar, after chairing the meeting of the CLP hinted at the party fielding a candidate, who is acceptable to all. He said that MLAs are yet to come to a consensus on the candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat.
Responding to a question whether the party will nominate a non-Congressman, Kavalekar said, “We have discussed on various proposals as we need a candidate who is acceptable to all as we don’t have absolute majority. We are only 16 and we need four more. Therefore we have to consider the preferences of all the others who we expect to support us.” When asked if sitting MP Shantaram Naik is out of the fray, he said that the CLP discussed many names, however, no names have been shortlisted. “I can’t tell you the names right now as we have not shortlisted the names as yet. We could have announced the names if we were in a majority but we need to consider others and only then take a decision,” he added.
Stating that the party is in discussions with other MLAs to garner support for the Rajya Sabha contest, he said, “Discussions are on with others. However, the candidate will contest on Congress symbol but the candidate will be finalised after consulting all those, whose support we expect.”
