Panaji: BJP chief Amit Shah has stepped in to counter a challenge from the Congress in Goa where the saffron party’s allies have been getting restless since Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar left for Delhi for treatment.
Shah called up state minister and Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader Vijay Sardesai on Sunday and informed him that the BJP was sending a team of observers to the coastal state to take stock of the situation.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Sardesai said he appreciated the prompt action by the BJP chief. The Town Planning minister has reportedly been upset since rumours started doing the rounds that Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) leader and PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar would be made the CM after merging his party with the BJP. Sardesai, with three MLAs, is said to have for long nourished CM ambitions.
Both Sardesai’s GFP and Dhavalikar’s MGP have three MLAs each in the Assembly. The BJP has 14 MLAs in the House of 40. The BJP, its allies and Independents have a strength of 24, while opposition Congress has 16 MLAs.
Hours after Parrikar was flown for treatment to AIIMS in the national capital, MGP president Deepak Dhavalikar had demanded that the “senior most minister" be handed over the government’s charge. The senior most minister in the Parrikar cabinet is Dhavalikar’s brother Sudin Dhavalikar.
The BJP has ruled out any change of guard in Goa, saying Parrikar was doing fine even as the Congress staked its fourth claim to form the government.
Parrikar, 62, who is suffering from a pancreatic ailment, is currently admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi for treatment.
The Congress, which has 16 members in the 40-member state Assembly, submitted a memorandum to the Governor, urging her not to dissolve the Assembly and instead invite the party to form the government, Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar said.
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