Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar Sworn in as Goa Chief Minister

Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as Goa Chief Minister for fourth time at the Raj Bhavan in Panaji, Goa on March 14, 2017.Goa Governor Mridula Sinha administered the oath of office and secrecy to the Chief Minister and eight other ministers who also took the oath.

• Supreme Court has given Mr. Parrikar 48 hours to prove his majority on the floor of the house on March 16, 2017. Portfolio allocation would be taken up after the trust vote.
• Supreme Court has directed Goa governor that all pre-requisites for holding the floor test be completed by March 15 including Election Commission related formalities and conduct floor test in the Goa Legislative Assembly on March 16.
• Former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, BJP national president Amit Shah, Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu and other dignitaries were present during the oath taking ceremony.
• This will be the 4th term for Parrikar as the Goa Chief Minister.
• Before this Parrikar has been chief minister of Goa  from 24 October 2000-3 June 2002; 3 June 2002- 2 February 2005 and from 9 March 2012-8 November 2014 before being appointed the Defence Minister.

Other Ministers who were sworn in includes

1. Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavlikar and Babu alias Manohar Azgaonkar (Both MGP)
2. Francisco D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar (BJP)
3. Vijay Sardesai, Jayesh Salgaonkar and Vinod Palienkar (Goa Forward Party)
4. Rohan Khavte and Govind Gaude (both Independents)

SC refuses to stay Parrikar’s oath taking ceremony

The Supreme Court refused to stay the swearing-in ceremony of Manohar Parrikar after the Congress filed a plea before it accusing BJP of stealing the mandate of Goa and buying MLAs.

• Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had filed a petition in the apex court alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stole the mandate it got from Goa people.
• Congress said that BJP is moving against the law to form governments in Goa even though the Congress is the single largest party in both states.
• In a 40 member house, the Congress has 17 legislators followed by BJP with 13, Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) with three each, three Independents and NCP (one).
• As per well-established constitutional norms and conventions, the single-largest party ought to have been given an opportunity to form government and prove its majority
• However, on March 12, 2017 BJP got the support of three members each of the GFP and MGP, besides two Independents to reach the golden number of 21 MLAs needed to prove majority in the 40-member House.
• Thus, a special bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar ruled out that Congress don’t have the numbers and that’s why it didn’t claim to form government. It said that Congress haven’t demonstrated before the governor that number is in its favour.

About Manohar Parrikar

Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar was born 13 December 1955 in Mapusa, Goa.  He is the first IIT graduate to serve as Chief Minister of an Indian state.

• Parrikar joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at a young age and became a mukhya shikshak (chief instructor) in the final years of his schooling.
• He was seconded by RSS to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the objective of fighting the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.
• As a member of the BJP, Parrikar was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Goa in 1994.
• He successfully contested the election to become Chief Minister of Goa for the first time on 24 October 2000. On 3 June 2002, he was re-elected to serve another term as Chief Minister.
• After that he served as the Chief Minister from 3 June 2002- 2 February 2005 and from 9 March 2012-8 November 2014
• Parrikar had represented the Panaji constituency in the Goa Legislative Assembly when he was a player in the state politics
• In November 2014, Parrikar was chosen as the Minister of Defence replacing Arun Jaitley.