NCP SPEAKER WANTS MICKKY TO HEAD NCP IN GOA

PANJIM: Giving clear indications of disqualifying its two defiant MLAs - Revenue Minister, Mr Jose Philip D’Souza and Tourism Minister, Mr Nilkanth Halarnkar - the Nationalist Congress Party has sent a letter to the Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly, Mr Pratapsingh Rane requesting him to replace Mr D’Souza with the Benaulim MLA, Mr Francisco Xavier Pacheco alias Mickky as the leader of the NCP’s legislative wing in the House.

The letter has further requested the Speaker to remove another party MLA, Mr Halarnkar as the party whip. The communication has come from the NCP Headquarters in New Delhi.

It is also learnt from reliable sources that the national president of the NCP, Mr Sharad Pawar telephonically spoke to Mr Rane and informed him about the letter. It is further learnt that Mr Pawar has taken the entire issue very seriously and has maintained that deciding the NCP MLAs for their induction in the state cabinet is the internal matter of the NCP, and no one outside the party should take decisions for the NCP.

It may be recalled that the All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of Goa desk of the party, Mr B K Hariprasad had recently told the media that the induction of Mr Pacheco in the cabinet could spell danger for the Congress-led state government and hence it would be wiser to maintain status quo as far as ministers in the state government are involved.

The statement had come from Mr Hariprasad in spite of the fact that Mr Pawar had personally requested the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat to re-induct Mr Pacheco in his cabinet.

The Revenue Minister, said that he does not want to react to the development at this point of time. “No Comments,” he added.

The Tourism Minister, told this daily that the party must have sent the letter to the Speaker after thoroughly studying all the aspects of the Constitution. “The matter is now in the jurisdiction of the Speaker,” he said, adding that he would rather wait and watch the further developments.

The former speaker and the Aldona MLA, Mr Dayanand Narvekar, speaking about the powers of the Speaker in this context said that it appears to be a step by the NCP towards disqualifying its two MLAs. “It is a matter of time before NCP files a disqualification petition before the Speaker to disqualify the two MLAs, now that the assembly has been convened next month,” he observed, stating that the case would be similar to that wherein a disqualification petition was moved against the Dhavalikar brothers by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.

“It is the political party and not MLAs who give the letter to the Governor as regards its support to the government,” Mr Narvekar said, adding that the party always proves to be powerful in such cases. “Personally, I feel that MLAs, on ethical grounds should not go against their party after reaping benefits from the party,” he opined.

Meanwhile, the state NCP spokesperson, Mr Trojano D’Mello has written a letter to the state president of the party, Mr Surendra Sirsat to convene a special meeting of the state executive of the party for discussing the political uncertainty in Goa.

The letter observes that the state wing of the NCP has kept the members of the state executive of the party in darkness as regards many things. “The NCP should also take a stand on various issues such as illegal casinos in the state, drug mafia, expansion of the national highways running through Goa and Regional Plan 2021,” it has added.

“The recent political developments in Goa have made their outcome a prestige issue for the national NCP president, Mr Sharad Pawar as well as senior party leader, Mr Praful Patel,” the letter maintained, alleging that wrong feedback given by the state NCP to Mr Pawar has resulted in wrong handling of the entire issue. The letter concluded that the party workers of the NCP are in a confused state and need to be explained the exact situation in the state unit of the party.