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Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008
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Goa CM in Delhi to meet high command

Special Correspondent

PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat rushed to New Delhi on Tuesday to seek the intervention of the Congress high command to resolve the problem of an inevitable cabinet reshuffle.

Instead of consolidating his position, a peace-formula worked out by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party high commands earlier to defuse a crisis faced by the Congress-led coalition government in the recent past has rendered the beleaguered Chief Minister more vulnerable to the power-tussle within the coalition.

A recently concluded coordination committee meeting, attended by All India Congress committee General Secretary B. Hariprasad and NCP leader Prafulla Patel, among others, had cleared the decks for the induction of one of the two MGP MLAs in the cabinet as part of the deal worked out to mollify the rebels.

The Kamat government, which faced two major toppling bids within seven months of coming to power, has NCP, MGP and an independent legislator as its alliance partners. While the two-member Save Goa Front merged into the Congress recently, one unattached MLA, who is supporting the government, is looking forward to joining the Congress.

Following a recent regrouping of political forces within the coalition, the NCP, which has two ministers in the 12-member cabinet, and independent legislator, Health Minister, Vishwajit Rane, have joined hands to put pressure on the Chief Minister to accommodate Mr. Sudin Dhavlikar of the MGP in the Cabinet.

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