the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was confronted over the suspected proposal for dissolution of the Goa legislative assembly to force a general election simultaneously with the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and he categorically denied of any such move, TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai said after Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.
Speaking to media after emerging from the meeting Sardesai said he took up the issue with Parrikar and impressed on him that the BJP, which is the principal party in the ruling coalition, should issue a public denial through a senior party leader to counter the Congress’ statement predicting dissolution of the House.
“The Congress statement was an attempt to set the cat among the pigeons. It is aimed at unsettling the stability of the government,” Sardesai said, adding that it would be in the fitness of things that the principal ruling party clarifies.
He said, the chief minister assured that a statement refuting the claim of the Opposition Congress will soon be issued by the South Goa MP, Narendra Sawaikar, which the latter did later on Thursday night.
Asked if he was convinced with the assurance from Parrikar and the BJP ruling out dissolution of the Assembly, Sardesai replied in the affirmative.
“I am convinced. Dissolution is a weapon used to tackle a political problem of numbers. I don’t think the BJP will be better off politically by dissolving the House,” Sardesai said further, adding that the government was formed with the aim to carry forward the development model and it is doing well with the Mandovi Bridge to be inaugurated soon.
Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar had on Tuesday raised apprehension that the Assembly would be dissolved after the three-day budget session beginning January 29.
Kavlekar who spoke to journalists after a Congress Legislature Party meeting to discuss floor strategy during the budget session, that the party had “clear indications” that the ruling dispensation could prematurely dissolve the House.
Parrikar and the BJP seem to have dispelled the doubts of the allies for now with a verbal assurance and Sawaikar’s formal denial that dissolution is on the saffron party’s radar. However, suspicions are bound to persist and grow in the coming days and the BJP will have to do more to prove an encore of 2002 -- when Parrikar dramatically and secretively dissolved the assembly when heading a similarly disparate coalition.
The Opposition leader had also said the CLP had resolved to demand an increase in the number of days during the Assembly session. “Last year there were only 16 days of business. For a healthy democracy at least 21 days of business are required,” Kavlekar had said.
Dissolution: Sawaikar issues statement
PANAJI: South Goa MP and general secretary of BJP state unit Narendra Sawaikar said that neither will the Goa Assembly be dissolved nor will there be any mid-term polls in Goa.
“The Statement by some Congress leaders that Goa is heading for mid-term polls is nothing but a futile attempt to create confusion among the people,” Sawaikar said in a statement issued late Thursday night. “The BJP-led coalition government will not only complete its five-year term but also give a smooth, development-centric governance to the State,” he said.
“The clueless Goa Congress is baffled by the development agenda and its effective implementation by the Manohar Parrikar-led government. Congress is scared of its imminent defeat in both the bypolls as well as Lok Sabha polls,” he added.
