TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Vice President and Goa observer, Smriti Irani on Wednesday attempted to set aside all speculations over its North Goa ticket for the forthcoming Lok Sabha 2014 polls, saying “the party doesn’t see any reason why Shripad Naik should not be given a ticket”.
“Shripadji is a senior and well respected BJP leader. He will continue to live with BJP. We were and would be blessed with his leadership at the Centre,” Irani told Herald, when asked whether the party would retain its North Goa ticket incumbent Sripad Naik.
“The final decision about the tickets would be taken by BJP parliamentary board,” she said.
Naik is the sitting North Goa BJP Member of Parliament. But during the last Assembly elections there was a lot of speculation fuelled by some utterances of the veteran politician and OBC face of the party that he wanted to come back to State politics.
There were also reports that Naik was upset over what he felt was a deliberate attempt of not being invited for Jan Sampark Abhiyan spearheaded by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
However, Irani said ‘there has never been an issue of sidelining a senior leader like Shripadji’.
The BJP is also looking at targeting women voters, and trying to take added advantage of the interest generated by women-centric schemes such as the Laadli Laxmi.
Speaking to media, Irani said that BJP will give equal representation to women while distributing tickets for the Lok Sabha polls, but stopped short of promising that this would happen in Goa, saying, “It is for the party’s Parliamentary Board to take the decision”.
“Our party has always given equal representation to women. This LS polls too, equal representation will be given for women considering the fact that 50 per cent voters in the country are women,” she said.
