Lok Sabha polls: BJP to add names of women aspirants for South Goa seat

Panaji: In a change in its strategy, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that it would add some names of women aspirants for the South Goa Lok Sabha seat.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that this is the first time they would be recommending names of women for parliamentary seat from Goa.

Besides the three names which are already shortlisted and sent to the party's election committee, more names would be added to the list, he said.

The coastal state has two Lok Sabha constituencies - North Goa and South Goa.

Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the BJP on Saturday announced the candidature of Shripad Naik for the North Goa seat.

While the North Goa seat has been represented by Naik for five consecutive terms, the South Goa seat has been won by the Congress, BJP and regional parties on different occasions.

Currently, Congress leader Francis Sardinha is the member of Parliament from South Goa.

Sawant said during the initial process, five names were shortlisted from South Goa seat by the party and were sent to the central screening committee.

"Out of the five, Ramesh Tawadkar and Digambar Kamat showed unwillingness to contest, after which only three names were remaining," he said.

Sawant said the BJP's election committee was of the opinion that names of women aspirants should also be added to the list against the backdrop of the party's move to give reservation to women in Parliament and state legislatures.

The process to select the names of women leaders, depending on their winnability prospects, has been started, he said.

"We will be consulting all the MLAs, state leaders, workers and extended members of the party before finalising the names," the CM said.