PANAJI: Days after former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar made their intentions clear of contesting the assembly elections scheduled early next year, BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said on Thursday that the party does not endorse the claims made by individuals.
“Nobody should announce their candidature and if someone has announced it, then BJP does not endorse it,” he said.
Tanavade said the party’s state units don’t have the right to declare candidates for assembly elections and they can only make recommendations to the BJP parliamentary board, which will decide on the candidates.
“Before recommending the names, we consult the party workers of the constituency and depending on the feedback we get—whether it is a single name or multiple names for a seat—we send them to the parliamentary board for a final decision,” he said.
“When the party grows, the list of aspiring candidates also grows,” Tanavade said, trying to downplay the claims made by Parsekar, one of the seniormost functionaries of the party in the state, and former state president Tendulkar.
He said the assembly elections have not yet been declared and these claims were too premature.
Tanavade said there was a time when BJP had to search for candidates to give tickets to contest assembly elections, but today in each constituency everyone thinks that he should get the party ticket.
Tendulkar had recently told TOI that he was even willing to resign from his Rajya Sabha seat if assured a ticket.
Tendulkar said that he has told the party about his aspiration to contest the next assembly elections.
Later, Parsekar had said there was no question of BJP denying him a ticket and he had already informed party national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh about his desire to contest the next assembly elections.