Parrikar likely to reshuffle portfolios

PANAJI: Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who is battling a pancreatic ailment, will meet his cabinet colleagues in hospital over the next fortnight to discuss a possible redistribution of portfolios.

The CM, who is receiving treatment at New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), had earlier claimed that he was not in a position to continue to discharge his duties and hinted at redistribution of his portfolios.

The move comes after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership placated its allies, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Forward Party (GFP), who had made their participation in the government, formed after elections last year, contingent on Parrikar being chief minister.

The focus has now shifted to a more permanent solution to fill the administrative vacuum caused by the absence of Parrikar, who was shifted to AIIMS in mid-September, days after he returned from a US hospital.

“He will meet cabinet colleagues. Basically some kind of a conclusion needs to [be arrived at]. Whatever he is going to do, he will do after October 10...,” said agriculture minister, Vijai Sardesai, of the GFP, who met the CM Monday.

Earlier, state BJP president, Vinay Tendulkar, expressed confidence that Parrikar will return

CHIEF MINISTER PLANS TO RESHUFFLE THE PORTFOLIOS AFTER THE BJP PLACATED ITS ALLIES, WHO EXTENDED THEIR SUPPORT FOR PARRIKAR HEADING THE GOVERNMENT

to the state. “The CM will come back; we cannot tell you the exact date, but he will return. Next week we are travelling to Delhi. We will meet him...,” he said.

The cabinet ministers have decided to meet without the chief minister at the secretariat every week to review the situation in the state, a move seen as a means to prevent the Congress from capitalising on the current impasse.

The Congress called the plan a mockery. “None of the current ministers have the power to grant financial sanction... The ministers have become dolls,” state Congress president Girish Chodankar said, adding that a redistribution of portfolios would not change anything.

Independent political commentator Prabhakar Timble argued, “The most significant issue is to provide an incumbent to the headless and rudderless cabinet. We need to admit that Goa does not have a CM in practice for over three months.”