Sandesh Prabhudesai
24 October 2000
Chief minister Francisco Sardinha today afternoon submitted his resignation to governor Mohammed Fazal, paving way for the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government.
The new cabinet, headed by BJP leader Manohar Parrikar, is expected to be sworn in by 5.30 pm.
Gopinath Munde, the BJP vice president, is arriving here today afternoon to take a final decision in this regard.
Admitting that his government is in minority, Sardinha told the journalists before leaving for Raj Bhavan that there was no point in facing the trust vote as situation has changed drastically since yesterday evening.
Following the decision of the Congress to abstain rather than voting in favour of Sardinha, four of his ministerial colleagues also split from the Goan People's Congress last night to support the new BJP government.
With this, the BJP has now support of 26 legislators, including four from the GPC, two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, one from the Congress (Shaikh Hassan) and one independent, besides 18 of the BJP itself.
The opposition, on the otehr hand, remains with only seven from the GPC, five (excluding the speaker) and one from the Nationalist Congress Party.
While Parrikar has said that his cabinet would be formed within the 21 persons who had met the governor earlier, efforts are also on to rope in at least three persons from the GPC splinter group which split last night, into the BJP.
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