Panaji: Four years after snapping ties with BJP, former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar rejoined the party on Friday. Parsekar said he had not joined any other political outfit after leaving BJP. He said he and his supporters returned to the party to strengthen it.“We have joined the party to work, and the party will give us responsibilities as per our capacity. We have to protect the interest of the party,” Parsekar said.Parsekar, along with his supporters, joined the party in the presence of chief minister Pramod Sawant, health minister Vishwajit Rane and BJP state president Damodar Naik, among others.Sawant said that Parsekar had always felt away from the party and not been able to work, but today he is happy to rejoin the party. The CM urged the karyakartas to take a pledge to win 30 seats in the 2027 assembly elections.A year ago, Parsekar said that he’s ready to rejoin BJP, and that it’s now up to the party to decide when the reunion will happen. Parsekar, a two-time former BJP state president, had snapped ties with the party in 2022 after he was denied its ticket to contest the Mandrem seat.In 2017, Parsekar, the incumbent chief minister, lost the election by over 7,000 votes to Dayanand Sopte of Congress. In 2018, Sopte joined BJP.His resignation from the party in 2022 was the end of his over three-decade-long association with BJP. Parsekar, an RSS member, first joined BJP in 1988 and contested his first election in 1989, but lost his deposit. Hailing from a family of MGP supporters, he had a confrontation with his family to contest on a BJP ticket. He said he “left his own home” for almost 12 years when he joined BJP.In 1994, Parsekar couldn’t contest on a BJP ticket as the party had formed an alliance with MGP, and the Mandrem seat was allotted to the regional party. He contested in 1999 and lost, but this time, he was able to secure his deposit.Parsekar won his first election in 2002, followed by victories in 2007 and 2012. In Nov 2014, he became CM after PM Narendra Modi inducted then CM Manohar Parrikar as Union defence minister. He thus became only the second BJP chief minister in Goa after Parrikar. He continued as CM till his defeat to Sopte in 2017.Over the past few decades, Parsekar occupied various positions in BJP, including state president, general secretary and secretary. Parsekar first became BJP state president in 1999 and then again in 2010.
