He served as Goa's Minister of Health before becoming Chief Minister and has a strong connection to the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. • In 1988, he contested and lost against sitting MLA and
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party candidate
Ramakant Khalap from
Mandrem constituency, as a candidate of the BJP, then a virtual non-entity in Goa. He was instrumental in building the BJP's support base along with political veterans like
Manohar Parrikar,
Rajendra Arlekar and
Shripad Naik, Union Minister of State for Health [AAYUSH Department]. • From 1994 to 1999, he served as a General Secretary of the Goa BJP • In 1999, he contested and lost again to Ramakant Khalap, but in 2002, he defeated Khalap by a small margin of 750 votes. • While he did not serve in the first BJP government in Goa, Parsekar served as the President of the BJP Goa Unit from 2000 to 2003 and then from 2010 to 2012. • In 2007, he doubled his victory margin in the Mandrem seat. • In 2012, he was re-elected when the BJP posted a remarkable victory, winning 21 out of 40 seats during the
2012 Goa Legislative Assembly election. • After Chief Minister
Manohar Parrikar joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet as India's Defense Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar was sworn in as his replacement on 8 November 2014. • In 2017, he lost the
Mandrem assembly seat to
Dayanand Sopte of the Indian National Congress. He resigned as Chief Minister on 11 March 2017. Later, Sopote joined BJP. • In 2022, he resigned from BJP when the party decided to field Sopote from Mandrem seat for Goa Vidhan Sabha mid-term election. Parsekar contested as an independent and came third, but polled enough votes to ensure the defeat of BJP's Sopote. == References ==