PANAJI/NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday fast-tracked its demand for the reservation of Scheduled Tribe (ST) constituencies in the upcoming Goa Legislative Assembly election.
While BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, the party’s Goa unit president Damodar Naik, and MP Sadanand Shet Tanavade, are in Delhi to meet leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a local party delegation on Monday met Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel and submitted a memorandum pressing the demand for ST reservation.
BJP Goa core committee member Govind Parvatkar, who led the delegation to the Chief Electoral Officer, told reporters that senior leaders, including Sawant, Naik, and Tanavade, are already in New Delhi pursuing the demand.
He said they will be meeting party leaders in Delhi to ensure that the Election Commission of India initiates the process of reserving seats for STs before the upcoming election.
The elections to the Goa Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held before March next year.
Parvatkar said that Goa is the only state without reservation for the ST community in its Legislative Assembly.
He said that during their meeting with the CEO, the delegation informed him that all the formalities required for the reservation have been completed by the BJP-led government. “Even the Goa Legislative Assembly has adopted a resolution demanding the reservation,” Parvatkar said.
Talking to reporters, Goel said that Parliament has already passed the The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2024.
The process will now have to be completed by the Election Commission of India, along with the Registrar General of India (RGI) and the Union Law Ministry.
He said that data on the ST population is available with the CEO, based on which the constituencies would be identified.
