Mickky-Pawar meet abandoned

Mickky-Pawar meet abandoned
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, FEB 21
Benaulim legislator Mickky Pacheco’s meeting with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar had to be abandoned mid-way due to an emergency cabinet meeting called by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Pacheco is in Delhi to meet Pawar to discuss his induction into the Digambar Kamat cabinet.
“We had spoken hardly for 15 minutes when the call for an emergency meeting came and Mr Pawar, who is the Union agriculture minister, had to rush,” Pacheco told Herald in a telephonic conversation.
The former tourism minister, who resigned last year due to his alleged involvement in his friend’s (Nadia Torrado) suicide death case, said he will have another round of meeting with Pawar tomorrow.
“We will meet again tomorrow probably for an hour and discuss the issues threadbare,” Pacheco said adding the 15 minutes meeting today was fruitful.
Asked whether he spoke on the demands, he replied, “I did convey the sentiments to him and we will need some more time to discuss the issues.”
The Pacheco-led group in the NCP had threatened to quit NCP if the party high command fails to get him inducted into the cabinet.
They also demanded that the two NCP ministers Jose Philip and Nilkanth Halarnkar be immediately dropped from the ministry and if Kamat fails to do so the party should withdraw support to the government.