Goa Forward Party president Sardesai calls the developments a "political rape of the state"
BJP Working President JP Nadda with Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant (yellow shirt), Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar, and Goa Congress rebel MLAs. Pic/PTI
Panaji: Three Goa Congress rebels named Chandrakant Kavlekar, Jennifer Monserrate and Filipe Nery Rodrigues along with former Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo were sworn in as ministers during a formal ceremony at Raj Bhavan near Panaji on Saturday.
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The said Congress rebels had joined BJP on Wednesday. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told reporters that Kavlekar, a former leader of the opposition, would be appointed Deputy Chief Minister and a notification formally allocating portfolios to the four new inductees could be issued by Monday.
The swearing-in ceremony followed hours after the unceremonious sacking of four non-BJP ministers by Sawant after a day-long stand-off. During the stand-off, Vijai Sardesai, Vinod Palienkar, Jayesh Salgaocar—all ministers from the Goa Forward Party—and Rohan Khaunte (independent) had refused to resign on Sawant's request.
Only one non-BJP minister, Govind Gaude, survived the cull on Saturday. Explaining the reasons for inducting the 10 Congress MLAs on Wednesday, Sawant said that every party wants to have a full majority government. "As per directions from the BJP central leadership, we have dropped four ministers and now BJP has a full majority government," Sawant said.
'Sawant eliminating Parrikar's legacy'
Goa Forward Party president Sardesai said CM Sawant was trying to wipe out former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's legacy. Addressing a meeting of party workers, Sardesai also announced the withdrawal of support of his three MLAs to the BJP-led coalition government.
He said that Parrikar had died twice, once physically on March 17 and again on July 13, when the four alliance ministers were dropped from the Cabinet.
"When Stalin died in Russia, there was a period under (Nikita) Khruschev called de-Stalinization, when Stalin's legacy was undone. This is going on in Goa. Attempts are being made to wipe out Parrikar's legacy," Sardesai said at the meeting, calling the ongoing developments a "political rape of Goa".
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