Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manohar Parrikar is all set to become the chief minister of Goa for the third time after the BJP-MGP combine on Wednesday staked its claim to form the government with the support of 26 legislators and the swearing -in will be held on Friday.
In the 2012 assembly elections, Goa had recorded an impressive 81.8 per cent voting.
With the BJP's strength in the 40-member Goa assembly increasing to 27 with two-thirds of Congress legislators joining it, the Sawant government does not need allies' support any longer.
The brother of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sonali Phogat has filed a formal complaint with the Goa Police, claiming that she was murdered by two of her associates.
Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar has sought time to respond to the Calling Attention motion moved by Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Michael Lobo on the issue of Playboy Club, which has sought permission to open a branch in the state.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani will skip the meeting of party office-bearers in Goa on Thursday due to ill-health.
With Sunday's result, in which the BJP managed one seat, the strength of Congress and its allies comprising the United Legislature Party rose to 21 in the 39-member House.\n\n
A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Goa has threatened to go on a hunger strike if a Playboy nightclub is allowed to open in his state, claiming that it would promote prostitution in the tourist hub. Michael Lobo is opposing a nightclub proposed on Candolim beach -- the first of dozens of Playboy outlets that are being planned across the country.
Soon after meeting, Raut hinted at a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in UP and Goa, stating that the parties are thinking of working together in both the states that are scheduled to go to assembly polls early next year.
The BJP has the cadres, organisation, and extensive funding. But in the absence of a towering political personality like Manohar Parrikar, the Goa outcome is hard to predict.
Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, who earned the ire of Congress colleagues for his statement calling Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi his 'best friend', on Saturday said the remark was taken out of context and expressed his commitment to secularism. "My statement has been taken out of context solely to create media and political hype," Kamat, who left the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2005 and joined the Congress, said, seeking to put a lid on the controversy over his remark.
A day after the exit polls predicted a hung assembly in Goa, hectic political activities have begun in the state with the Congress focusing on keeping its flock together and plans to shift all its candidates to a resort, a senior party leader said on Tuesday.
The five vacancies -- Taleigao, Cambarjua, Benaulim, Margoa and Poinguinim -- resulted following the resignation of Bharatiya Janata Party legislators, reducing the then Manohar Parrikar government to a minority.
Debutant legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi chief minister along with six ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the Bharatiya Janata Party's return to power in the city after more than 26 years.
The entire thing was a planned conspiracy and the Congress is back again at its dirty and habitual game of destabilising duly elected governments, he said.
Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat has termed his Gujarat counterpart and firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi as his 'best friend'. During a press briefing, Kamat said Modi was his 'best friend' and added that he will visit Gujarat if the state government invites him. "When I am in Delhi for any conference, I have Sheila Dikshit on one side and Narendra Modi on the other. He is my best friend," Kamat, who was earlier in the BJP, told media persons.
In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP.
Bowing to pressure from within the Bharatiya Janata Party against the United States-based Playboy club's move to open its facility in the coastal state, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said the application would not be considered by his government on "technical grounds".
The lowest victory margin of 76 was recorded in St Andre constituency in North Goa, where Revolutionary Goans Party, a new political outfit in the state, made its debut by defeating BJP candidate and sitting MLA Francis Silveira. RGP candidate Viresh Borkar won the contest.
A BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said all party MLAs have been asked not to leave the state.
With this, the Congress's strength in the 40-member assembly reduced to 14 from 16.
There is expected to be chaos in the Goa assembly when the Bharatiya Janata Party raises the issue of illegal mining. The issue after the Shah Commission began probing the illegalities pertaining to the mining industry in Goa.
The Trinamool Congress on Saturday promised to roll out a direct cash transfer scheme for women in Goa if it is voted to power in the state after the Assembly polls due in February next year.
Didi said her party doesn't divide people on religious lines even if they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians.
All the candidates checked in the resort on Tuesday evening with their luggage, indicating that the government formation may be a long haul.
Michael Lobo, who resigned as deputy speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, and three of the 10 MLAs who joined the BJP -- Chandrakant Kavlekar, Jeniffer Monserratte, Philip Neri Rodrigues -- were sworn in as new ministers.
Congress on Saturday took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party over the absence of its senior leaders, including party veteran L K Advani, at the Goa meet, wondering whether those who are unable to manage their own party can run the country.
'If the charge is not given immediately, we will contest all upcoming elections, that is (Assembly) by-election and Lok Sabha polls, by fielding our candidates against official candidate of the government'
Even as authorities on Friday morning began demolishing the North Goa-based restaurant linked to the death of BJP leader Sonali Phogat for violation of norms, the action was stopped midway after its owner claimed that the Supreme Court gave a stay on it.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to make an in-depth analysis of its rout in the recent Lok Sabha election, during the party's `Chintan Baithak' which gets underway in Panaji, Goa, tomorrow
"We have decided to approach the Supreme Court to get justice despite having numbers on our side. The floor-test was bulldozed by the Speaker," Manohar Parrikar, GDA leader, told PTI on Monday night.
Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party members on Friday walked out of the Goa assembly protesting the speaker's action of not considering the Public Accounts Committee's report on the illegal mining in the state.
The chief minister has been in the US for treatment of a pancreatic ailment since March this year.
He also alleged that Dalit MLAs, minister or councillors of the AAP were not given any respect.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was on Tuesday appointed governor of Rajasthan as the Centre named three more Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for the Raj Bhavans in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.
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