Sandesh Prabhudesai
24 October 2000
Manohar Parrikar, Goa's first chief minister belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, is also the first IIT engineer taking over reins of the tiny tourist state.
The 45-year old businessmen from Mapusa has been the real moving force for the BJP in last one decade, before which the saffron party was almost a non-entity here. His consistent work in a planned and organised manner, combined with manipulative skills, has now made him Goa's 23rd chief minister.
He is also the third chief minister in last 16 months Goa is witnessing while he ranks 13th in the list of chief ministers in last one decade, since when overnight defections and toppling games has become order of the day here.
Having attained the B Tech (Met) degree from IIT, Powai, he came down to Goa to work for the BJP as a committed cadre from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. After making the presence of the BJP felt in a couple of Lok Sabha elections, he led the BJP in the Goa Assembly in 1994 polls, along with three others.
Parrikar succeeded in creating a moralistic image of the BJP in the minds of Goan public, who even kept aside their reservations about communal image of the BJP and elected 10 partymen in the 1999 elections.
Meanwhile, he also played effective role as the opposition member during his first tenure with his uprightness and exposing several scandals including the infamous power scandal.
He also led the group to support the government led by Dr Wilfred de Souza, who split from the Congress in July 1998, for five months from outside, after which a split within de Souza's group led to its collapse.
The Congress government led by Luizinho Faleiro, which came to power following this, collapsed once again within three months. Parrikar is today accused of backstabbing de Souza, who had a chance to once again form the government. But realising strong sentiments of the people against the toppling games, the BJP demanded President's Rule.
By emerging as a major opposition party in the ongoing Assembly in June last year, Parrikar played his cards safely as the opposition leader and decided to support Francisco Sardinha's coalition government, when he revolted against the Congress government in November.
Though three among the ten became also the ministers in the coalition government, the shrewd ambitious politician remained out of power, though he continued leading his legislature party.
As the undisputable leader, he has now come to power, by only after managing to rope in at least eight Congress defectors into the saffron party. He is once again accused of backstabbing by Sardinha, the outgoing chief minister.
Incidentally, he represents the constituency of Panaji, the capital of Goa. Being a person with vision and having expertise in financial matters, he faces a challenge to lead the most educated state to prosperity by countering the debt trap it has been thrown into.
Having at least eight professional politicians in his camp now, he also faces a challenge of completing the term of remaining three and a half years without a revolt, which Goa has nowadays become habitual to.
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