Willy likely to resign tonight
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 25 November 1998 12:18 ISTThe week-long political crisis may come to an end with an indication that chief minister Wilfred de Souza may submit his resignation tonight as he in unable to muster the majority support he needs to win the trust vote scheduled for tomorrow morning.
While this would pave way for Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro to form the government with the support of 21 members in a 40-member House, memorandums are piling up at the Raj Bhavan, demanding dissolution and President's Rule.
Taking lesson from the recent Bihar fiasco, Faleiro feels Governor Lt Gen (Retd) J F R Jacob would not recommend dissolution but would invite him to form the government. "I have 21 today, but I may be more strong tomorrow", he said today evening, hinting at more defections.
Dissolution is the only answer to end the game of musical chairs going on in Goa, feels Manohar Parrikar, the local BJP leader. By air-dashing to Delhi yesterday and returning today morning, he has strongly urged union home minister L K Advani to go for dissolution and pave way for early elections in Goa.
The crisis began with four Goa Rajiv Congress legislators, belonging to the Souza group, withdrew support to the three-month old coalition government, which was actually formed with the help of opposition parties like the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party and the BJP in July, ending the three and a half year Congress rule.
While this threw up de Souza government into minority, the Congress also pulled out another independent MLA in their camp and staked claim to form the government with a wafer-thin majority of 21. All these MLAs have been confined into a beach resort since then.
"The confinement of MLAs on both the sides, except the BJP MLAs, itself shows the mistrust among any legislator of any party. How could any combination provide a stable government in future in such a situation", asks Parrikar, reiterating his demand for dissolution.
Though Faleiro strongly denied the allegation of money exchanging hands in the whole deal at an initiative of couple of mine owners, Parrikar refuses to dismiss the news, stating that it had become of culture of Goan politics by now. "Not principles but only greed is playing a major role", he adds.
Besides several people, even most of the local newspaper have strongly proposed to the governor to recommend dissolution of the Goa Assembly rather than allowing such greedy games of a tiny tourist state through trust vote and other methods. But whether the Assembly would be held tomorrow is still not clear
