Goa's former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said he will resign from the BJP today. (File)
Goa's former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Laxmikant Parsekar, who was denied ticket by the party for the next month's state Assembly elections, today said he will resign from the ruling party.
Talking to news agency PTI, the 65-year-old leader said he does not wish to remain in the party and will formally submit his resignation by this evening.
Mr Parsekar currently heads the BJP's manifesto committee for the upcoming Goa elections and is also a member of the party's core committee.
The BJP has nominated sitting MLA Dayanand Sopte from Mandrem Assembly segment, which Mr Parsekar had represented between 2002 and 2017.
Mr Sopte had defeated Mr Parsekar in the 2017 state polls as a Congress candidate, but joined the ruling BJP in 2019 along with nine other leaders.
"As of now, I have decided to resign. What I should be doing next, would be decided later," Mr Parsekar told news agency Press Trust of India.
He said that Mr Sopte has been neglecting the original BJP workers in Mandrem, due to which there is large-scale resentment among them.
Mr Parsekar was the Chief Minister of Goa between 2014 and 2017. He was selected to head the state after the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was inducted into the Union Cabinet as the Defence Minister.
The BJP has announced its first list of 34 candidates for the February 14 Goa Assembly elections. There are total 40 seats in the state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)