Sudhir Kandolkar quits BJP, joins Congress with 350 supporters

Panaji: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhir Kandolkar on Sunday quit the party and later joined Congress with his 350 supporters.

Kandolkar joined the Congress in the presence of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar and Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar at the party office in Mapusa.

In the resignation letter submitted to the BJP Goa president Vinay Tendulkar has reportedly not mentioned the reason of leaving the party.

Goa will be going to polls in the third phase of voting on April 23. Along with Lok Sabha elections, the bye-polls will also be held for three assembly seats. In Goa, BJP has fielded Dayanand Raghunath Sopte from Mandrem, Joushua Peter Desouza from Mapusa and Subhash Ankush Shirodkar from Siroda for the bye-polls.

The seven-phase of 17th Lok Sabha elections in the country are slated to begin on April 11 and will go on till May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.