Goemkarponn Desk
BICHOLIM: A day after BJP top brass offered Bicholim ticket to Utpal Parrikar, the Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant announced to go ahead with incumbent MLA and Speaker Rajesh Patnekar in the constituency.
CM Sawant, Satish Dhond and Sadanand Tanavade today morning held a meeting with the BJP mandal to dicuss and finalise the candidate for the upcoming assembly elections.
“We have finalised Rajesh Patnekar as candidate for the Bicholim Constituency; He will be made a cabinet minister if BJP forms government,” said CM Sawant after the meeting
After Patnekar conveyed his decision not to contest, BJP had approached two others-independent candidates Dr Chandrakant Shetye and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), probable candidate Naresh Sawal-to contest on a BJP ticket, but they too declined the party’s offer.
Shetye is set to contest independently, while Sawal, who lost to Patnekar in 2017, is an MGP candidate. The name of BJP worker Shilpa Naik was currently under discussion.
““I have informed the party that I do not want to contest the election on health grounds. Whichever candidate is given the party’s ticket, I will whole-heartedly work for him,” Patnekar had told reporters earlier
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