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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Goa Ministry reduced to a minority

Special Correspondent

NCP withdraws support

Digambar Kamat

PANAJI: The crisis-ridden Digambar Kamat government was on Wednesday night reduced to a minority with the withdrawal of support by the three-member Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and an independent.

With this the government’s strength on the floor of the House has been reduced to 18 in the 40-member House.

The leader of the NCP’s legislative wing and Revenue Minister, Jose Philip D’Souza; Tourism Minister Micky Pacheco (NCP); and independent MLA Vishwajeet Rane said they had formally withdrawn support to the government.

They had sent in their resignation letters to Governor S.C. Jamir.

Raj Bhavan sources, however, did not confirm having received any letters in this regard.

Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs of the NCP, Nilkath Halarnakar, submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Kamat.

The NCP’s organisational wing, however, continued to claim that the party has not been informed by the legislators about withdrawal of support.

Earlier, Mr. Kamat said that the Congress and the NCP observers would arrive in Goa on Thursday morning to take stock of the situation. He declined to comment on the developments.

Talking to presspersons after presiding over an emergency Cabinet meeting, Mr. Kamat said that he was confident that any grievances the three NCP MLAs and the independent MLA had could be resolved amicably.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Manohar Parrikar, said the Chief Minister must prove his majority in the Assembly on Thursday.

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