the goan I network
PANAJI
PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar on Thursday rubbished reports of the likelihood of his Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) splitting and MLAs leaving to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying there is no such possibility.
“The era of MLAs defecting from the MGP is long over in 2002. The MGP will split no more,” Dhavalikar said when asked to comment on reports that two of his party MLAs - Tourism Minister Babu Ajgaonkar and GSIDC chairman Dipak Pauskar - were being targeted by the BJP to augment its numbers in the legislative assembly.
Reports have been doing the rounds for over a fortnight that the BJP is desperately wooing the two MGP MLAs in the hope of reclaiming the ‘single largest party’ position in the legislative equation. The ruling party lost that tag to the Opposition Congress following the death of its senior leader and Mapusa MLA Francis D’Souza on
February 14.
Ajgaonkar and Pauskar would skirt the provisions of the anti-defection laws should they switch loyalties in tandem as the X schedule provides for two-thirds of the legislature party to ‘merge’ with another political party and the duo satisfy the norm.
Rajya Sabha MP and BJP’s Goa unit president has neither confirmed nor denied the possibility of Ajgaonkar and Pauskar joining his party.
The duo also enjoy a good personal rapport with Goa Forward Party supremo Vijai Sardesai, who has been engaged with Dhavlikar in a battle of political one-upmanship in the ruling coalition ever since Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s abortive attempt in September last year to anoint the latter with a leadership role in the government due to his health predicament.
