PANJIM: Former Transport Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar on Monday said that in 2014 former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had offered him the chief minister’s post on the condition of merging MGP with the BJP.
Speaking to the media, Dhavalikar said, “Manohar Parrikar told me to merge MGP with BJP and become the Chief Minister of Goa. But I refused because I wanted to keep MGP alive. The same issue had cropped up in 2005 wherein Congress offered me merger and in return take the chief ministership but I refused. If I wanted I could easily have chosen too but MGP would not have survived.”
Dhavalikar added, “We have decided on 22 candidates and will announce the names in the next two days. They are young. I will give a young cabinet to Goa. As for me, I will retire at the age of 70.”
He said, “Critics should stop saying that MGP is a company of Dhavalikar brothers. Though I am a Brahmin the party belongs to Bhau Bandodkar, a Bahujan.”
Asked whether the Mandrem seat will be contested by MGP, Dhavalikar said, “Yes we will contest with a good candidate against Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and we are confident about winning it.”
