Panaji, May 2 (IANS): Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Monday said he would welcome the return of his predecessor, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, to state politics if he so wished.

"If he wants to come to Goa, I welcome him," Parsekar said when asked for his reaction to reports in the media that quoted Parrikar, a former chief minister, as saying that he wants to return to state politics ahead of the 2017 assembly elections.

Parrikar was the chief minister of the BJP-led coalition government from 2012 to 2014, when he was elevated as defence minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Parsekar was appointed as his successor as the chief minister.

Parsekar was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function during which the state government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Software Technology Park in India, a society registered with the union ministry for communication and information technology, to promote software exports from India.