The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a Congress petition to stall Manohar Parrikar’s swearing-in as the Goa chief minister. The former defence minister is expected to be sworn in as the CM in a ceremony later in the day. The BJP said it had the support of 21 MLAs, the exact number needed to prove majority in the 40-member House. The assembly polls had thrown up a hung verdict, with the BJP bagging 13 seats as against 17 won by the Congress.
Over two years after he quit as the CM of Goa to become the defence minister, Manohar Parrikar was set to take over the coastal state’s mantle again as the head of a BJP-led government. The decks were cleared for Parrikar, with President Pranab Mukherjee accepting on Monday his resignation as defence minister and assigning additional charge of the ministry to finance minister Arun Jaitley. Earlier in the day, Parrikar resigned to head the Goa government.
Parrikar sent a faxed letter of resignation to the Prime Minister’s Office ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, expected to be held at Goa’s Raj Bhavan at 5pm on Tuesday. Goa governor Mridula Sinha asked Parrikar to prove majority on the floor of the Goa Legislative Assembly 15 days after taking oath.
“Around eight to nine ministers including two each from the Goa Forward Party and the Maharashta Gomantak Party and two independents will be sworn in. Two or three ministers from BJP (including Parrikar) too will take the oath,” BJP’s Goa unit president Vinay Tendulkar told media.
