Who is Manohar Parrikar? Mumbai IIT graduate who loved politics

New Delhi, Mar 17: Manohar Parrikar, Goa Chief Minister and former defence minister, has passed away at the age of 63 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Parrikar was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in February 2018 and had been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and New York since.

Born on 13 December 1955, Parrikar was an Indian politician and leader of Bharatiya Janata Party who had been Chief Minister of Goa since 14 March 2017. Previously he was Chief Minister of Goa from 2000 to 2005 and from 2012 to 2014.

Parrikar proposed the name of Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate before the 2013 BJP parliamentary elections convention in Goa, later he served in the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Defence Minister of India from 2014 to 2017. He is a former member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

From an RSS pracharak to a Union Minister, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was known for his administrative acumen and clean image, which left an indelible mark on the politics of the tiny state.

A Mumbai IIT graduate in metallurgical engineering and among the first members of BJP in Goa, Parrikar was instrumental in raising the profile of his party from its just four members in state assembly in 1994 to its present status as a ruling party in the state assembly.

Parrikar had caused a flutter in the BJP with remarks that the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat were a "blot" on Modi's career though he was not personally part of it. The Goa CM, who was also known for his blunt talk and development initiatives, got the first taste of power in the state in 2000 when he was elected the Chief Minister, becoming the first IITian to head a state government. He also had an image of being an organised taskmaster.