A day after Goa Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar late on Monday suddenly dropped two Ministers from a coalition party — the MGP — from his Cabinet, top leaders from the BJP and MGP on Tuesday appeared in caution mode.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday, insisted that the BJP-MGP alliance was still on and MGP State president Deepak Dhavalikar claimed that his party would abide by “coalition dharma” until the election code of conduct sets in.
Parrikar, former Goa Chief Minister also said, that despite the sacking of the two Ministers, there was still scope for the ongoing ruling coalition to continue, if the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party leaders approach them through proper channels.
“Some have interpreted (the developments) as a dead-end to the alliance. It is a hindrance to the alliance... But alliance is an agreement between two political parties, so that political partys’ agreement as far as we are concerned, from our side we have not terminated,” Parrikar said at a specially convened Press Conference in Panaji on Tuesday.
“If we receive any proposal from them there is still some time. There is still some time, if they are interested they can still put up a proposal,” Parrikar also said, adding that the BJP would not entertain an outreach from the media, which he said, is anyway never taken seriously.
leaders from both the MGP and BJP, which have been in alliance since 2012, have been exchanging bitter notes about each other over the last few days, which has resulted in Parsekar dropping Public Works Department minister Sudin Dhavalikar and Factories and Boilers minister Deepak Dhavalikar, in a late-night development on Monday.
While the BJP has a simple majority of 21 seats in the 40-member Goa legislative assembly, the MGP has three MlAs, two of whom were cabinet ministers.
Both the Dhavalikar brothers have repeatedly accused Parsekar of lackluster leadership and said that under his regime, Goa's progress had gone backwards by a decade.
Justifying their expulsion from the cabinet, Parrikar said that if the ministers do not gave trust in the chief minister, they should have ideally resigned from the cabinet in the first place.
"What has happened in the government part of it, because they themselves said they have lost trust in the chief minister. Therefore chief minister is free to act. Actually any such loss of trust should have actually followed by a resignation," Parrikar said.
Parrikar also said, that with a mandate of 21 seats people of Goa had voted for the BJP and that the ruling party MlAs had every right to elect its own leaders in the legislative assembly. And a party with just three seats, could not dictate their choice to a party with 21 seats.
"They cannot impose their choice on us," Parrikar said.
The Defence Minister also said that the alliance between the MGP and the BJP would spell good for Goa.
Deepak Dhavalikar, who had been in cavalier mood while making a series of allegations against the BJP over the last few days, also appeared mellowed today, saying the MGP would not budge from its coalition dharma until the Model Code of Conduct sets in.
"We will continue with the alliance until the code of conduct. MGP will not give up on its coalition dharma," Dhavalikar told reporters.