Crucial meets: Spotlight on Parrikar

KUNCOLIENKAR ON
HIS RESIGNATION
>> It is the need of the party that I resign and so I put in my papers today
TENDULKAR RESPONSE
>> He must have resigned following instructions from the Chief Minister
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WILL SOPTE
GET GTDC?
>> He has already gone on record to say that the BJP has promised to make him the chairman of GTDC
>> GTDC at present is headed by Power Minister Nilesh Cabral, who held that post before he was inducted into the cabinet
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PANAJI: Former Panaji MLA Siddharth Kuncolienkar on Monday resigned as chairman of the state-owned Economic Development Corporation (EDC) paving the way for former minister Subhash Shirodkar, who is expected to be "rewarded" for his political switch from the Congress to the BJP, to take over.
The order appointing Shirodkar as chairman of the EDC is expected to be issued on Tuesday after the file is cleared by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, official sources said.
Parrikar, who has been suffering from pancreatic cancer is scheduled to chair a meeting of the Investment Promotion Board on Tuesday evening.
The agenda for Tuesday's IPB meeting which will be held at his private residence in Dona Paula, is kept under wraps. It will be the first pre-announced official engagement that the ailing chief minister will attend to, ever since he returned from AIIMS Delhi on October 14.
An official claim that he had attended the previous IPB meeting through the video-conferencing mode snowballed into a major controversy after the Opposition Congress questioned the claim and sought evidence of the video-conferencing clip.
On Wednesday, Parrikar has also called for a cabinet meeting again at his private residence in Dona Paula. It will be the first collective meeting of the cabinet in nearly three months since the two held in quick succession on July 27 and August 1, when the Goa legislative Assembly was in session.
The agendas for both the meetings - Tuesday's IPB meet and Wednesday's cabinet - however have been kept top secret.
Meanwhile, Kuncolienkar told The Goan that he had resigned following directives of the party.
"It is the need of the party that I resign and so I put in my papers today," Kuncolienkar said.
BJP State unit president, Vinay Tendulkar however denied issuing any such instruction. Speaking to the media after a meeting of party MLAs, office-bearers and others, Tendulkar said Kuncolienkar had not consulted him before resigning.
"He must have resigned following instructions from the Chief Minister," Tendulkar said.
Shirodkar, meanwhile was not available for comment but his resignation alongwith that of Dayanand Sopte as MLAs gave the ruling BJP a political respite as the development stripped the Opposition Congress of its "single-largest party" status in the legislature.
The switch in parties, as has been the norm in Goa's defection-ridden politics, is generally followed by reward of office which will be fulfilled with Shirodkar's impending appointment as EDC chairman.
Sopte, on the other hand, has already gone on record to say that the BJP has promised to make him the chairman of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation. The GTDC at present continues to be headed by Power Minister Nilesh Cabral, who held that post before he was inducted into the cabinet in September.