Is the BJP playing ‘National Games’ with Goa Assembly election?
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 18 March 2016 18:12 IST
Whom should we believe in? Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar or his subordinate Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar?
Hardly 10 days ago, on the completion of 4 years of the BJP-led government, Goa CM Parsekar had ruled out early Assembly election in Goa.
The term of Goa Assembly ends on 18th March.
“Goa election would be held either in the second half of February or the first half of March”, he had told the media.
Earlier to this, somewhere in January, local BJP president Vinay Tendulkar had also opposed early election, stating that November to January is a festive season in Goa.
However, the ‘official’ position of the BJP-led government is much different than what the CM or his party president ‘talks’ about.
And it came to the fore due to the National Games scheduled late this year.
This is what Sports Minister Tawadkar stated today in his written reply to former Congress CM Digambar Kamat.
“The National Games were tentatively finalized from 5th November to 19th November, 2016. However, due to the possibility of an early General Assembly Elections, the State has requested the Indian Olympic Association to defer the hosting of the Games to a later date.”
The question was unstarred, thus it did not come up for discussion in the House.
However, it became crystal clear that officially the state government expects early election in Goa.
The local office of the Election Commission of India has already clarified that a formal decision in this regard would be taken only in the first week of June.
A joint meeting of the State electoral officers of five states – Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh – would be held together in the national capital to decide the dates of elections.
All the five states had gone to state Assembly elections together, last time, between 28th January to 4th March.
Goa was the last state to go for election, on 4th March.
Though officially nothing is decided so far, it is also learnt that the ECI is thinking of having early election this time, possibly by second week of December, before the festive season begins.
It’s because election held later clashes with school and college examinations.
