Goa Congress: BJP has no Constitutional right to stay in power in state

Ramping up its attack against the Manohar Parikkar-led BJP government in Goa, the Congress has alleged that BJP has no Constitutional right to continue in power in Goa.

In a direct attack, the Congress stated that BJP which usurped power in Goa through backdoor conducted a Goa Cabinet Meeting at AIIMS in Delhi on October 12, 2018. “This has never happened before. The state is headless, governance is paralysed, administration is crippled, there is complete breakdown of authority, rule of law has collapsed, people are feeling cheated with absolutely no policy and direction and Goa is in chaos,” Girish Chodankar, Goa PCC President.

Chodankar said the BJP MLA and deputy speaker Michael Lobo had said that ‘there is “no positivity” about the health condition of the ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’. “He showed the ‘mirror of truth’ to the BJP leadership by conceding that the state administration has "totally collapsed" because of the absence of ailing CM,” pointed out Chodankar.

Goa BJP chief Vijay Tendulkar had earlier stated that the government had lost majority as three of their MLAs were in the hospital. Even the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which is an alliance of the ruling BJP in Goa, has already said that it was “high time” that CM Parrikar handed over the charge to the senior-most minister in his absence.

Chodankar said he suspects that the BJP fears removing Parrikar from his post because he knows “many secret details” of the deal from his time as the defence minister.

“If they upset him, he may put those details in the public domain,” Chodankar said while addressing a press conference in Panjim. He added that till now, Congress cooperated with the BJP government in the state on account of CM Parrikar's ailing health, but without a full-time CM, governance has been affected.

Parrikar has been undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment in New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) since September 15 and before that he underwent treatment in the United States for three months.

The BJP has, however, ruled out any change of guard in the state and made it clear that Parrikar, who holds the key to BJP’s coalition, will remain CM.