28 February, 2005. Fall of the Goa government of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power since 2000 end (and ruled through proxy for a year prior to that). A complex parliamentary power struggle in Goa culminated on 28 February with the resignation both of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-elected Speaker of the state assembly Vishwas Satarkar and his deputy, preventing the holding of a vote of confidence in the administration headed by Pratapsingh Rane of the Congress party. The crisis began in late January after the United Goans Democratic Party—Secular-Micky (UGDP) merged with the ruling BJP, enlarging the latter’s majority in the assembly. However, chief minister Manohar Parrikar then dismissed one of his ministers, while four BJP legislators resigned from the party and the assembly, extending their support to Congress. But a determined chief minister Parrikar refused to give up office, claiming he still enjoyed the majority. After further defections and arcane procedural manoeuvres, (the Congress-appointed) State Governor S.C. Jamir on 2 February dismissed Parrikar’s government and installed Rane as chief minister, even though the former had claimed to have technically won a confidence vote. On appointing Rane, Jamir asked him to prove his majority through a confidence vote within a month, leading to allegations of bias by the ousted BJP.
