Goa BJP ‘commercialised’, no longer party Parrikar built: Minister Michael Lobo
Goa minister MIchael Lobo, who has been rumoured to be looking at exiting the BJP to join the Congress, launched a stinging attack on his party’s state leadership.
PANAJI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa is no longer ‘a party with a difference’, has lost its original spirit, and has become commercialised, Goa minister Michael Lobo said on Tuesday, shooting a new dart at the party’s state leadership that is prepping for elections early next year.
Lobo also complained that loyalists of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar in the state were being sidelined. “There are some groups within the party who do not want well-wishers of Manohar Parrikar, who want to take his legacy forward within the party,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function.
“The BJP was known as a party with a difference. It is known lately that it is not a party with a difference. Party workers have no importance in the party now,” Lobo said, drawing an analogy with a restaurant that once used to serve good food but later lost its essence after it became popular.
“Today the party has become commercialised. It is like a restaurant that gained popularity for serving tasty food but no sooner it begins catering to hundreds of guests the food no longer tastes the same,” Lobo said.
Lobo said the party was now only guided by the principle of importing winning candidates irrespective of their background and was more than willing to abandon the grassroots workers.
“There was a time when the party considered the grassroots karyakarta as its strength. Today the karyakarta is being literally kicked out,” Lobo said.
Lobo is the second sitting BJP MLA to hit out at the state leadership after MLA Carlos Almeida who complained that the BJP was no longer the one that Parrikar represented. Almeida has since then exited the BJP and joined the Congress.
Last month, Michael Lobo announced that his wife, Delilah Lobo, will “most certainly” contest the assembly polls from Siolim constituency (which borders the Calangute constituency he represents) and threw his weight behind Sudhir Kandolkar, a Congressman who he said he will back irrespective of the party Kandolkar contests from.