Manohar Parrikar appointed as new Goa Chief Minister

NEW DELHI: In a late night development, Governor Mridula Sinha on Sunday appointed Manohar Parrikar as chief minister of Goa and asked him to prove majority on the floor of the state assembly within 15 days. Parrikar is likely to take oath on Tuesday.

The BJP delegation led by Parrikar had met Governor on Sunday evening staking claim to form the government. BJP, which won 13 seats, now claims it has letters of support from MGP, GFP and Independents to take its tally up to 21 in a 40-member house.

On Monday, Parrikar is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and submit his resignation from the Union council of ministers.

The Bharatiya Jananta Party decided on Sunday to let Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar return to Goa as CM if that’s the only way they could form the government there.

The move was made after Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP) along with a couple of Independents lined up with BJP on the condition that Parrikar would return as CM.

Road & Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, who was also in Goa, made it official that Parrikar will be BJP’s CM candidate. “He will have to tender in his resignation as Defence Minister once he is Goa CM but he has not given it yet,” he told reporters.

Bharatiya Jananta Party insiders told ET that while making this “political move”, the party also took note of the 1996 precedent when the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma invited Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the leader of single largest party to form the Government that barely lasted for 13 days.

The Congress has emerged as the single largest party with 17 MLAs and claims support of 19 MLAs, including one of its rebels elected as an independent MLA and a lone NCP MLA.

Sensing that the first opportunity may go to the Congress, the BJP wanted to make its bid to align smaller parties and Independent MLAs with them even if that meant forcing a reshuffle in the union cabinet.

The Congress, meanwhile, was a divided house unable to decide its CM face, hampered by many claimants as at least five of the elected members had held that post earlier. As a result, conjuring up numbers appeared a major struggle though Digvijaya Singh, All India Congress Committee General Secretary in-charge for the State, sought to take the fight to the GFP camp.

“Vijay Sardesai has sought vote on a secular plea. Goa Forward should decide if it wants to side with communal forces for power or secular parties,” Congress General Secretary in-charge Digvijaya Singh told ET on being asked on GFP’s decision to back BJP.