Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar passed away yesterday at the age of 63. The cremation of late BJP leader will take place full state honour on today evening. The funeral procession will be taken from Kala Academy, Panjim, at four in the evening and last rites will be performed at five in the evening at Miramar. The Centre has already announced the National Mourning on March 18. Here are ten things to know about Parrikar, which makes him an exceptional man of politics.
- Manohar Parrikar, who rose from a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to become the country’s Defence Minister and also chief minister of Goa, enjoyed a man-next-door image in the politically-volatile coastal state.
- Born on December 13, 1955 into a middle class family, his political career began as an RSS pracharak and he continued working for the Sangh even after graduating from IIT-Bombay as a metallurgical engineer.
- Parrikar entered electoral politics in 1994 when he won on a BJP ticket from Panaji constituency.
- He became chief minister of Goa for the first time on October 24, 2000, but his tenure lasted only until February 27, 2002. Parrikar served the state four times as chief minister and had a three-year-long stint as Defence Minister in the Narendra Modi-led cabinet.
- He even credited the surgical strikes conducted by Indian Army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir during his tenure as Defence Minister to the teachings of the RSS.
- After the Modi-led Cabinet was sworn at the Centre, Parrikar was offered a ministerial berth in November 2014. He remained in the union cabinet till 2017 when his party failed to garner a majority in the Goa legislative assembly polls.
- He returned to the state in March 2017 when he managed to woo alliance partners such as Goa Forward Party and MGP to support him to form the government.
- His health started deteriorating in February 2018 and he was first admitted at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital for pancreatic ailment. He was flown to the US in the first week of March last year where he remained admitted at hospital till June.
- On January 27, he attended the inauguration of the third bridge on Mandovi river along with Union minister Nitin Gadkari. Parrikar also addressed the Atal Booth Karyakarta Sammelan on February 9, 2019 in the presence of BJP president Amit Shah.
- Parrikar stunned everyone when he reached the CM’s office on January 2 this year after a gap of almost two-and-a-half months. During the last few days, Parrikar had been in and out of Goa Medical College and Hospital for treatment, but was mostly confined to his private residence.
With PTI inputs