The Manohar Parrikar government proved its majority on the floor of the Goa Assembly by winning the trust vote with the support of 22 legislators in the 40-member House.
The opposition Congress could muster only 16 votes against the government with one of its legislators absenting from the crucial floor test.
The special Assembly session was convened to conduct the floor test following an order by the Supreme Court.
One Congress legislator and senior Goa leader Vishwajit Rane, who had not participated in floor test, has resigned from the party.
“I have resigned as MLA. I have also resigned as a member of the Congress party. I am going back to my people for a fresh mandate,” Mr. Rane said. He said he was yet to decide which party he would head to, but did not rule out joining the BJP.
Mr. Rane has been very upset since the party failed to move quickly enough to win support after election results showed that Goa had given a majority to no party.
After winning the trust vote Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar took a veiled dig at the Congress leadership, saying he was happy to be back in Goa.
“The Congress never had the numbers….this is what happens when you come to Goa only to holiday, not to work,” said Parrikar to a TV channel. Though he didn’t name anyone, but it was an apparent jibe at the in-charge of Goa from Congress Party Mr. Digvijaya Singh.
Parrikar, who resigned as Union defence minister to be Goa’s chief minister, also admitted that it was “quite problematic health-wise to stay in Delhi”. He couldn’t move his family to the national capital, and said he didn’t have any friends in Delhi.
The Shiv Sena has launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying the formation of the government in Goa is equivalent to ‘murder of democracy’ and wished ‘strength’ for our democracy to ‘handle such happenings’.
“The political chaos that were played in Goa to form the government by the BJP cannot be termed anything other than a ‘murder of democracy’. Though this is another thing that it is not the first time when such incident has taken place in Goa. Earlier also such incident has been witnessed, this is one more addition to it. We wish our democracy the strength to handle such happenings,” said an editorial in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana.Saamana
