Team Herald
PANJIM: The ballot fever is gradually catching up as on Sunday the MGP confirmed that they would field a candidate in Mandrem constituency against the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar. The CM had polled 11,955 votes in the 2012 polls.
Addressing the media, the MGP president, Deepak Dhavalikar, said: “We would definitely contest in Mandrem constituency, which is currently ruled by BJP. We have received recommendations for two to three candidates and in the next two to three days, the MGP parliamentary board will finalise on the candiate.
“We are confident about Mandrem as earlier it used to be our bastion and the wave now is such that we would definitely take hold of the seat,” he said.
The party had recently withdrawn support to the BJP-led state government following differences with Parsekar.
Dhavalikar said they had asked for Mandrem seat during the sharing agreement with GSM and Shiv Sena.
The MGP president claimed that the alliance has already been finalised and announcement is just a formality. The MGP, GSM and Sena leaders will also meet later on Monday afternoon to decide on seat-sharing. They have already in-principle decided that MGP will contest on 22 seats, GSM on 8 and Sena on 5 seats.
