Parrikar to canvass for BJP in north India tour

Panaji, March 21 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar may land up in Varanasi in the next few days to campaign for his Narendra Modi even as a top party official confirmed his campaign tour to Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi.

Speaking to reporters at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters Friday, state president Vinay Tendulkar said that Parrikar would Saturday leave on a three-day tour to engage with intellectuals and businessmen in the two states and the union territory ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

While Tendulkar claimed that Parrikar's tour to Uttar Pradesh was a multi-city affair, he did not rule out the inclusion of Varanasi, where Modi is scheduled to contest as a pit-stop.

"The idea is to engage with intellectuals and businessmen in these places and expose them to what the BJP has done in terms of good governance in Goa," he said.

Tendulkar said that some of the schemes implemented in Goa like abolition of value added tax (VAT) on petrol in Goa would be discussed.

"He (Parrikar) will be explaining to them about the schemes implemented by the BJP in Goa like the VAT abolition on petrol which makes the fuel the cheapest in the country. Other issues related to good governance will also be talked about by our CM," he said.