Panaji: Former Defence Minister late Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar has lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Atanasio Monserrate by a wafer-thin margin in the Goa Assembly polls. Monserrate, who is popularly known as Babush, said he is not happy with the margin of victory and claimed that many BJP supporters has not voted for him.
“I have informed BJP leaders of this. They should watch out in the future. The state BJP unit did not send the right message to the people. I am in touch with all BJP leaders and I am with the BJP,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Utpal Parrikar had contested the election as an Independent candidate after the BJP refused him the Panaji ticket but offered him a different seat. However, the late BJP veteran’s son did not budge from his demand, asserting that his father had built the party “from the ground up” in Goa in general, and Panaji in particular.
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Manohar Parrikar, who was three-time chief minister of Goa, held the Panaji seat for 25 years, and he and Monserrate were long-time rivals. Following Parrikar’s death, Monserrate won as a Congress candidate in the 2019 by-elections. He later switched to the BJP.
In the 2022 Goa Assembly polls, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiv Sena had openly supported Utpal Parrikar, and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had appealed to all non-BJP parties to not field a candidate against Utpal Parrikar as a “tribute” to his
father.
India Blooms News Service
