Sardinha-Parrikar deny toppling, but Cong welcomes him

Sandesh Prabhudesai
11 March 2000  

Leaders of the three-month old coalition government in Goa dismiss all the possibilities of their honeymoon coming to an end, though the ongoing moves to topple the government are not denied.

The opposition Congress, on the other hand, has welcomed chief minister Francisco Sardinha, who had split from the then ruling party, back into the original core.

All the concerned political leaders instantly reacted to the report filed by Goa News (flashed by Gomantak Times on Friday) that Sardinha, along with opposition leader Ravi Naik, is planning to continue as the chief minister, but by joining the Congress along with his splinter group while leaving the BJP.

"Right now our doors are closed to any negotiation", said Sardinha at a hurriedly convened press conference to clarify the matter after the news broke out that he is planning to go back home.

Along with ten other Congressmen, Sardinha had split from the then Luizinho Faleiro-led Congress government, forming a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"There is no new situation emerging. The Congress is deliberately spreading the rumours to save its party from splitting further", claims Manohar Parrikar, the BJP legislature leader.

Sardinha however does not deny that proposals have come even from important functionaries of the Congress, without disclosing the names, to join back the party fore. He has presently formed the Goan People's Congress, a regional outfit.

"We have ideological difference neither with the Congress nor the BJP", claims Sardinha, who also finds that all parties on the same ideological footings except 'minor differences here and there'.

Goa has in fact proved it beyond doubt that greed for power and money is the ultimate ideology in politics that brings all politicians on par. Sardinha's is the twelfth government formed here in the last ten years with two Assemblies witnessing the President's rule while the third one has just begun functioning from June last year.

"He is in a wrong company, leading the government of the rich. He should come back to the Congress to lead the government of the poor", quips Ravi Naik, the state opposition leader, who has been otherwise working silently on the proposal.

Both Sardinha and Parrikar however disclose that at least five to six Congressmen have approached to join them, which means Goa would still witness further defections even if Sardinha does not go back to the Congress. "Talks are still on", adds the CM.

According to Parrikar, some of the Congressmen have even desired to join the BJP but the request is still not being considered. Every political leader here talks of the other party splitting, admitting indirectly that hectic efforts are on to change the political equations once again, just in three moths.

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