Lawyer Amit Palekar is AAP's Goa Chief Minister candidate

Announcement came a day after AAP announced its CM candidate for Punjab elections

Lawyer and social worker Amit Palekar is the Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate for Goa, party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced today. Mr Palekar hails from the OBC Bhandari community, which accounts for about 35 per cent of Goa's population, and was recently in news for his hunger strike to protest illegal construction at an Old Goa heritage site. Mr Palekar, who joined the AAP this October, hugged Mr Kejriwal following the announcement at a function in Panaji. AAP MLA Atishi was also present on the occasion.Before announcing Mr Palekar's name, Mr Kejriwal said the party had chosen a "honest man" as the face of its campaign in the coastal state. He also said that they had picked a person well known for his welfare work in the community.Mr Kejriwal said that while the Bhandari community account for about 35 per cent of Goa's population, there has been only one Chief Minister from among them -- Ravi Naik -- for two-and-a-half years. Countering criticism that the party was resorting to caste politics, he said they were only trying to "correct" the politics over caste the state has witnessed so far.