Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced senior advocate Amit Palekar as its chief ministerial face for Goa ahead of the upcoming elections.
Palekar belongs to the Bhandari community in Goa, which is one of the largest voter bases in the coastal state. Incidentally, last year, the Bhandari Samaj in Goa had made it clear that it would extend its support to any political party that would declare its chief ministerial candidate from its community.
With Palekar now being proposed as its CM face, the AAP has played a strategic move to woo the Bhandari community.
When Palekar joined AAP on October 21, 2021, he said the party’s ideology was very similar to what he believed in and hence, it wasn’t very difficult to join forces. Though Palekar claims he doesn’t hail from a political background, his mother has been the sarpanch of Merces village for 10 years.
After joining AAP, Palekar came into the limelight when he went on an indefinite hunger strike at Old Goa, an important heritage and sacred site, in whose close vicinity an alleged illegal construction was going on sans permission.
The UNESCO World Heritage site houses several churches in the vicinity and had attracted backlash from people of all faiths. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had then tweeted: “Really proud of you Amit for standing against those who trying to destroy Goa. You are risking your life to save Old Goa. I’ll pray for you and thousands of other people who…
