PANAJI
Leaders and workers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa were on Sunday engaged in hectic last minute lobbying as the party got mandal presidents installed in 36 constituencies most of who were either protégés of ministers and legislators or backed by them.
In four constituencies -- Benaulim, Velim, Nuvem and Marcaim -- no exercise was held to pick the new mandal committees and their chiefs.
In some constituencies, some of the long-serving karyakatas were upset with changes in the mandal setups forced on them due to the involvement of turncoat MLAs who defected from the Congress and have now taken control of their respective mandals, particularly in Mormugao, Saligao and Cumbharjua.
Meanwhile, BJP National General Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Arun Singh arrived on Sunday to oversee the organisational elections and will be in the State for the next two days.
Singh is also expected to meet and interact with local leaders and partymen in a bid to gauge the party mood in respect to the election of the next State party president.
A shortlist of six names for the top post had already been sent to the party central leadership by the State Core Committee and Singh is expected to sit with this core committee to discuss modalities and possibly consensus building towards a single name.
Outgoing State President Sadanand Tanavade has already announced that the party will have a new President in the State by January end.
Former MP Narendra Sawaikar and former Fatorda MLA Damodar (Damu) Naik are said to be frontrunners for the position.
Former Deputy CM Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar and two former ministers - Dayanand Mandrekar and Dilip Parulekar -- besides former Mandrem MLA Dayanand Sopte are the others in the shortlist.
