Panaji/March, 18: After Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s death on Sunday evening, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari landed in Panaji and held overnight meetings with alliance partners to decide on a successor and save the coalition government as the opposition Congress staked claim to power for the second time in two days.
In the 2017 Goa polls, when the Congress emerged as the largest party in a hung verdict, it was Nitin Gadkari who had negotiated alliances to establish a BJP-led coalition with Manohar Parrikar – then Union Defence Minister – as chief minister.
Manohar Parrikar died night intervening Saturday and Sunday after a year-long battle with cancer. He led a government with allies like the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Goa Forward Party and Independents.
The BJP-led coalition government lost its razor-thin majority after the death of lawmaker Francis D’Souza and the resignation of two Congress lawmakers. The strength of the Goa Assembly stands at 37 instead of 40. The Congress has 14 lawmakers and BJP has 13.
Manohar Parrikar, the BJP’s tallest leader in Goa, was the most acceptable leader for the top job among the party’s allies. A popular Goan politician, Manohar Parrikar kept the fractious coalition running, even when he was making public appearances with a nasal tube and supported by aides, at the peak of his battle with pancreatic cancer.
As reports of the Chief Minister’s critical state emerged Saturday last week in the evening hours , the BJP gathered all its lawmakers and prepped for tense times ahead.
In the late night meeting of the BJP and its allies, the MGP’s Sudin Dhavalikar insisted on the chief minister’s post, according to BJP lawmaker and Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly, Michael Lobo.
The BJP, however, wants someone “from their own camp” to succeed Manohar Parrikar. BJP lawmakers have suggested the names of Vishwajit Rane and Pramod Sawant.
“During a meeting with Nitin Gadkari, Sudin Dhavalikar expressed his willingness to become the Chief Minister of Goa. He said that he has sacrificed many times by supporting the BJP, and now he has put in his demand but the BJP will not agree to that,” Mr Lobo told reporters after the overnight meeting.
Goa Forward Party chief and state minister Vijay Sardesai also sees himself as a candidate for the top job. “We discussed the broad contours of the alliance government in future. We are in the process of finalising and nothing has been confirmed yet. We have given our options and asked them to revert,” Mr Sardesai said after meeting Nitin Gadkari.
Mr Sardesai was among the ministers who had visited Manohar Parrikar yesterday as his condition was deteriorating. Mr Sardesai stressed that his party had strongly supported Manohar Parrikar and not the BJP. The “options are open” now, he remarked.
As the BJP struggled to keep its flock together, the Goa Congress wrote to Governor Mridula Sinha for the second time in 48 hours, staking claim to form government. “Now, after Mr Parrikar’s death, BJP has no allies,” the Congress wrote in its letter and urged the Governor to ensure smooth transition and transfer of power.
“The Congress being the single largest party is entitled to be invited to form the next government. We, therefore, once again stake our claim to form the government,” the letter said.
The Congress’s Digambar Kamat, a former chief minister, has been in the middle of a buzz after his sudden trip to Delhi amid reports that he was being pursued by the BJP. He denied that he was in Delhi to meet the BJP leadership.
“My programme in Delhi was finalised 2-3 days ago, there was no question of meeting anybody. I don’t have any offers from BJP, these stories were planted by vested interests. I’m not bothered about the leadership or the Chief Minister’s post,” Kamat remarked, said a media report.
