Sandesh Prabhudesai
20 November 1999
With decision on chief minister Luizinho Faleiro's fate now postponed till Wednesday, hectic activity has begun in both the camps of the Congress as well as the splinter group led by Francisco Sardinha to engineer further defections and strengthen their position.
Following 11 Congressmen splitting and staking claim to form a coalition government with the opposition support, governor Lt Gen J F R Jacob has told Faleiro to prove his majority on the floor of the House on 24 November.
While Faleiro is utilising this time to lure the dissidents back into his camp, Sardinha is trying to weaken the Congress further by wooing more Congressmen in his camp.
Sardinha, along with two other dissidents, in fact held secret parleys today with PWD minister Ravi Naik in an attempt to engineer further defections. "I would welcome them if they come as a group", says Sardinha.
Counter attempts however are also being made from Faleiro's side to try and get back their party colleagues from the splinter group so that he could win the confidence vote on 24 November. "Many people in the dissident camp have approached me to come back", claims Faleiro.
The chief minister, who is also the state PCC president, has however already expelled four ministers and the deputy speaker, at a meeting supposedly held in Mumbai on 18 November (one day prior to the split) after meeting the one-man assessment committee of A K Anthony, for the anti-party activities they carried on which resulted in the Congress losing both the Lok Sabha seats.
"Faleiro has literally hijacked the party high command through the observers, who never remained loyal to the party", alleged Sardinha while talking to the journalists at a resort, where all the anti-Congress groups are camping.
Sardinha also claimed that he has turned down the high command's offer to change the leadership and make him the chief minister if they come back. "It is too late as it would mean flouting the confidence of all the parties who have posed faith in me", says Sardinha.
Chief minister Faleiro, who remained closeted today with high command observer Govindrao Adik and his close confidants, still feels confident of winning the confidence vote.
In an attempt to woo rest of the six legislators from the splinter group, Faleiro has now convened the CLP meeting tomorrow. The plan is to file a disqualification petition if they do not attend the meeting.
The chief minister however appears to be in a fix as speaker Pratapsing Rane, who belongs to the Congress party, has reportedly turned down high command's instructions to act immediately to disqualify them. His son was in fact seen moving in the Sardinha camp at the resort.
Though Sardinha admits that such defections hamper growth of the state when people had given mandate to the Congress for stability, he feels it happened because the high command imposed an unstable chief minister who brought more people from other parties and gave them undue powers.
Faleiro in the meanwhile has dismissed the charge made by Sardinha camp that he is misusing the state machinery and using coercive measures to intimidate his colleagues and take them back. "In fact I have provided them full police protection at the resort", he argues.
Meanwhile, the 10-member BJP has convened the state executive meeting tomorrow to decide whether to participate in the government, after which they would consult the central leaders in Delhi to take a final decision.
Though the local leadership is of the view that the BJP should participate in the government, Manohar Parrikar, the state opposition leader, is personally reluctant to be one of the cabinet members.
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