Demanding an apology from Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for "deceiving" the people of Goa, the Congress on Saturday said that the former became the head of the state not by people's mandate but because of the power of money.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh further accused of a heavy exchange between the parties on the intervening night of March 11 and 12 which resulted in the change of verdict.
"Goa voters defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Manohar Parrikar and their 21 seats were reduced to 13. Gadkari's money made Parrikar the Chief Minister. I accuse that a heavy exchange was made on the intervening night of March 11 and 12 between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. in a Goa hotel," Singh told ANI.
Singh further said the Goa Governor was responsible for violating the Supreme Court's guidelines and the Constitution by inviting the BJP instead of the Congress which secured more seats in the state.
"I have issued a substantive notice against him in the Lok Sabha and the Speaker has accepted it also, but the MPs are trying to avoid it. I am confident my notice will be passed and the Governor will have to resign. I can only ask Manohar Parrikar to apologise to the people for Goa for deceiving them," he said.
Earlier in the day, Digvijaya called Parrikar "hungry for power" and sought an apology from him for having cheated the people of Goa, a day after Parrikar trained his guns at Singh and "thanked" him for failing to cobble together a majority in Goa despite the Congress party winning the maximum number of assembly seats.
"Shame on you Mr Parrikar and your hunger for Power. You have cheated the People of Goa. Apologise to them," Singh said on Twitter.
Parrikar on Friday took a dig at the Congress general secretary saying his incompetence led to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) victory in the state.
"Of course, I thanked Digvijaya for letting us form the government. It is because of his incompetence that we formed the government here. He kept roaming around and we formed the government in 48 hours. His own MLA did not have faith in him while we built consensus with the regional parties," Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha.
Digvijaya, who was in-charge of the Congress affairs in Goa, had earlier said the constitutional norms were not followed by Governor Mridula Sinha, adding that the Congress despite being the single largest party was not invited to form the government in the state.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)