PANJIM: After a weekend of hectic but unsuccessful lobbying for the chief minister’s post, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza is confident of retaining the portfolios he held during the 30-month long government of Manohar Parrikar.
He has, however, left the decision of which departments he should preside over with newly sworn-in Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, who will allot portfolios this week.
Parsekar and D’Souza were among the few from Goa who attended Parrikar’s swearing-in as Union cabinet minister at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
“It is for the chief minister to decide but I am happy with the Revenue, Urban Development, IT and NRI portfolios. I know these departments well,” he told Herald over the phone from Delhi airport, minutes before boarding a flight to Goa after attending Parrikar’s swearing-in ceremony.
The deputy chief minister also met President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President Amit Shah and other central ministers during high tea after the swearing-in ceremony. However, his failed attempt to wrest the chief minister’s post was not discussed.
“That was not a place to discuss my matter. Nevertheless, the party took a decision and we have a new chief minister. I had fought to put a system in place while electing a new chief minister and that was followed when all 21 MLAs gave their preferences,” he said, adding, “I didn’t get enough support. I agree with the decision. I will continue to remain a loyal soldier of the party.”
Ahead of Parrikar’s resignation as chief minister, D’Souza had asked that he be elevated claiming he was the second-in-command and the senior most in the party. The party instead chose Parsekar as the next chief minister. Even as six MLAs earlier supported him, they too toned down their stand hours before the swearing-in on Saturday stating ‘party is supreme and we support its decision’.
Besides D’Souza, Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar, Dayanand Mandrekar, Ramesh Tawadkar, Mahadev Naik, Dilip Parulekar, Milind Naik, Pandurang Deepak Dhavalikar and Alina Saldanha also took oath as ministers on Saturday.
