PANJIM: In a day of fast moving developments after Wednesday’s initial vacillation, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar received a call from BJP national president Amit Shah directing him to accept any responsibility if assigned by the Prime Minister.
Parrikar was also asked by the party top brass to make preparations to take up the responsibility for setting into motion the whole sequence of events for the day.
Parrikar landed at Dabolim airport at around 2.30 p.m. where he spoke to a few media persons, before leaving for his residence at Dona Paula.
He then made it to the official Chief Minister’s residence – Mahalaxmi – where he met Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and then went on to have a meeting with both the contenders for the Chief Minister’s post, Parsekar and Speaker Rajendra Arlekar, at his Dona Paula residence. He then met the media at around 5 p.m.
After that the Chief Minister had an emotional meeting with his party workers at Boca de Vaca in Panjim at around 5.30 p.m. where he apparently told them that he might contest from UP for a seat in the Rajya Sabha.
A late night meeting to try and build a consensus around a new Chief Minister and keep the flock together saw Parrikar meet select MLAs, and local BJP and RSS leaders. The meeting was held at a local government hotel at which were present local RSS heavyweights as well as Ministers Dayanand Mandrekar, Ramesh Tawadkar, MLAs Dr Pramod Sawant, BJP heavyweight Satish Dhond, as well as BJP State unit president Vinay Tendulkar among others. The meeting culminated with dinner at a local BJP watering hole in the city centre.
Meanwhile, almost as a sequel to this, State Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni – known to be close to Parrikar – said he would resign his post as soon as Parrikar puts in his papers as the Chief Minister.
Parrikar’s departure to Delhi will throw open the Panjim constituency, for which the fight has already started. There were reports that St Cruz MLA Atanasio Babush Monserrate would resign and contest as an independent from the capital.
On Wednesday, Parrikar, along with Tendulkar and organising secretary Satish Dhond, had met Shah in Delhi where he had been called to quite suddenly.
He had returned from Delhi just last week after meetings with Union ministers where he had tried to sort out the myriad problems facing Goa, especially in mining and environment, as well find a way forward for future development plans.
