Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday took a dig at Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, saying the latter’s incompetence led to the BJP’s victory in the state.
“Of course I thanked Digvijaya for letting us form the government. It is because of his incompetence that we formed the government here. He kept roaming around and we formed the government in 48 hours. His own MLA did not have faith in him while we built consensus with the regional parties,” Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha.
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Digvijaya, who was in-charge of the Congress affairs in Goa, had earlier said the constitutional norms were not followed by Governor Mridula Sinha, adding that the Congress despite being the single largest party was not invited to form the government in the state.
“The procedure is that the single largest party is always called. So, the Governor should have adopted this process. The Governor has to act under the Constitution as per the established conventions,” Singh said.
Earlier on March 16, former defence minister Parrikar established victory in the Goa Assembly as 22 MLAs stood in his support.
16 MLAs opposed Parrikar’s candidature as the Chief Minister, while one MLA was absent.
The Supreme Court had ordered a floor test as the Congress challenged his appointment, citing that the Goa Governor did not follow the procedure as dictated by the Constitution.
Despite the BJP ending up second behind the Congress in a split mandate, Parrikar had claimed the support of 22 legislators, two more than the half-way mark in the 40-member Assembly.
The Congress won 17 seats but was not able to prove majority.