BJP-MGP rush to Delhi to demand PR
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 24 November 1998 12:21 ISTWhile the second trial of strength of Dr Wilfred de Souza's coalition government within three months is hardly one day ahead, local leaders from the Bharaitya Janata Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party have rushed to Delhi to demand President's Rule in Goa if the chief minister loses trust vote in the House on Friday.
Chief minister de Souza as well as the Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro, who has now staked claim to form the government, however continue claiming of having majority on their side. The Congress camp is physically still having 21 members with them, though under tight security.
"No government can be stable with a wafer thin majority of 21 in the 40-member House. It is a fit case for dissolution if the CM loses trust vote", said local BJP leader Manohar Parrikar before leaving for Delhi. He is planning to meet union home minister L K Advani as well as other leaders, briefing them about local situation.
Former union law minister Ramakant Khalap, who also rushed to Delhi today on a same mission, recalled a similar situation in 1990 when then governor Khurshid Alam Khan had preferred to keep the Assembly under suspended animation than giving him opportunity to form the government with 21 members.
Alleging that Khan, being a Congressman, had given enough time for the Congress for horse-trading, Khalap has urged Governor Lt Gen (Retd) J F R Jacob to rather recommend dissolution of the Assembly. With the speaker belonging to the Congress, they would actually have only 20 against 19, he points out.
Faleiro, who is tipped to be the Congress chief minister, however deplores such a demand describing it as undemocratic. At a press conference held at Betul Beach Resort in South Goa, where all the 21 are kept under captivity, he claimed of getting eight more on his side, including four more from de Souza's Goa Rajiv Congress.
Meanwhile, GRC general secretary Suresh Parulekar has criticised the manner in which even the independent MLAs are being forcibly kept under captivity by Churchill Alemao and his legislator brother Joaquim. "Even their mobiles phones are with the Alemaos", he alleges, while claiming that no member of the ruling coalition is being housed in the CM's bungalow any more.
The local newspapers as well as common people however have been demanding immediate dissolution of the House instead of continuing with such greedy games, which has thrown all principles of value-based politics to the wind. Early elections is the only solution they want the governor to pave the way for.
