Parrikar sworn in as Goa CM, floor test tomorrow

New Delhi/Panaji: Manohar Parrikar was on Tuesday sworn in as Goa chief minister for the fourth time after the Supreme Court gave its clearance, rejecting the Congress’ plea to stay the oath-taking. The Congress, on its part, breathed fire with its vice-president Rahul Gandhi accusing the BJP of “stealing” the people’s mandate and “undermining democracy” with the use of money power.

Mr Parrikar, who resigned as defence minister on Monday, will be heading a coalition government, three days after the BJP ended up second behind the Congress in a fractured mandate. He took the oath along with nine MLAs, including two BJP members, three of the Goa Forward Party, two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLAs and as many Independents. BJP president Amit Shah and Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and M. Venkaiah Naidu attended the swearing-in ceremony.

Mr Parrikar will seek a vote of confidence on the floor of the Assembly on Thursday, as directed by the Supreme Court earlier in the day. The decks for Mr Parrikar’s oath-taking were cleared after a bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar, while refusing to stay the swearing-in, directed that the Assembly session be called at 11 am on March 16 exclusively for holding of the floor test.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first to congratulate Mr Parrikar. “Congratulations to @manoharparrikar and his team on being sworn in. My best wishes in taking Goa to new heights of progress,” Mr Modi tweeted.

While giving its decision on Goa, the Supreme Court said all contentious issues raised by the Congress can be resolved by a “simple direction” of holding a floor test that has been ordered for March 16. The Congress, with 17 MLAs, emerged as the single largest party in the 40-member House, while the BJP has shown the support of 23 MLAs, including 13 of its own.

“The constitutional convention of inviting the single largest party is subject to the numbers,” it said, even as it found fault with the Congress for not raising the issue of the number

of MLAs supporting it before the governor, and also rushing to the court without the affidavits of the elected members of regional parties and Independents which it claimed are supporting the Congress.

As the Congress saw Goa slip out of its hands despite emerging as the single largest party, Mr Gandhi cried foul, alleging that the Goa governor had behaved in a “partisan” manner.

“They are saying it is okay for them to misuse the office of governor... In two states where we won, democracy has been undermined by them (BJP) using financial power, money... That is what is happening. The mandate of the people of Goa and Manipur has been stolen by the BJP,” Mr Gandhi said outside Parliament.

“Our fight with the BJP is an ideological fight. What the BJP has done in Manipur and Goa is their ideology — and that is what we are fighting. It is a question of how much the BJP has thrown to steal the mandate of the people of Manipur and Goa.

“That is the question. It is not about how soon they went, but how much money the BJP gave to steal the mandate in Goa and Manipur,” Mr Gandhi said.

Congress leaders moved an adjournment motion on the issue in the Lok Sabha and staged two walkouts.Differences also erupted within the Congress on how the Goa issue had been handled. Many Congress leaders, including the party’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Satyavrat Chaturvedi, criticised the delay in garnering support from other MLAs in Goa, where it lost out to the BJP in the race to form the government despite being the single largest party.

They also said accountability be fixed for not being able to form the government as the party squandered the opportunity to return to power in the coastal state.

The BJP, on its part, dismissed the accusation. Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the allegations that the BJP was “stealing” the mandate in Goa was a “a bit too much” as the governor could not have invited a minority of 17 Congress MLAs to form the government.

“The Congress Party complains a bit too much. It accused the BJP of ‘stealing’ the mandate in Goa. It also unsuccessfully petitioned before the Supreme Court. It attempted to raise issues in the Lok Sabha,” he said in a Facebook post.