TEAM HERALD
VASCO: Claiming that he did not have the numbers and that majority of the MLAs had voted in favour of Laxmikant Parsekar, a dejected Francis D’Souza was left red-faced, embarrassed and clearly in an awkward position at Dabolim airport, after he was confronted over his U-turn barely 24 hours earlier.
While former chief minister Manohar Parrikar along with three MLAs left for the national capital on Saturday to take up his next assignment as union minister in BJP’s Central government, his former deputy chief minister was clearly the main target by media persons at Dabolim Airport.
Hounded by media persons to justify his unexpected change of position in lending support to Parsekar as chief minister barely a day after insisting on his claim to the chief minister’s post and even threatening to stay away from the new cabinet if denied the top post, D’Souza was distinctly an unhappy man.
D’Souza, who was clearly upset at the Dabolim Airport, told Herald: “I did not have the numbers and majority of the MLAs had voted in favour of Parsekar, when they had to choose the candidate for the chief minister’s post.”
Such was his dejection that D’Souza even objected when some journalists tried to click his photographs. “Why do you want to click my photographs? What is the use of it now,” he shot back, as he hurried into the airport.
He along with Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and Aldona Glen Ticlo were accompanying Parrikar to Delhi.
When Lobo, a key member in D’Souza’s group of legislators, was asked to explain what had gone wrong for D’Souza in his claim to the chief minister’s post, Lobo echoed the views of D’Souza. “We did not have the required numbers to get D’Souza selected as the next chief minister,” admitted Lobo.
On the other hand, Aldona MLA Glen Ticlo said Parsekar’s decision to the chief minister’s post had the approval of the party high command.
“It was the decision of the party high command to make Parsekar the chief minister. Besides, the BJP party MLAs in Goa also unanimously decided to elevate Parsekar as the next chief minister,” said Ticlo.
When reminded that D’Souza’s claim to the chief minister’s post was also to project the view that the BJP is not a communal party, Ticlo added: “There are MLAs from the minority community and hence, one cannot label the BJP as a communal party.”
Asked if the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar would be in a position to keep all MLAs together, especially in light of a dejected D’Souza and his group, Ticlo said: “Parrikar will monitor Goa’s politics from Delhi and he will visit the State at least twice a month to take the stock of the situation. He will provide his guidance from time-to-time.”
