Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday won the critical trust vote in the legislature, with 22 MLAs backing his government and the Congress getting the support of 16 legislators.In a related development, Congress MLA Vishajit Rane resigned from the party and the assembly, complaining that he was sick of the way the party was functioning in Goa.Parrikar, whose BJP heads a coalition government with a slim majority, was sworn in as Chief Minister of the coastal state for the fourth time on Tuesday. Parrikar, who is not a legislator and is a Rajya Sabha member, moved a one-line motion of confidence, after which pro-tem Speaker Sidharth Kunkolienkar asked those in favour to stand up. The pro-tem Speaker overruled opposition member Pratapsingh Rane's efforts to raise a point of order related to the appointment of a junior member of the assembly as pro-tem Speaker.
The 22 MLAs who supported the motion included those of the Bharatiya Janata Party (minus the pro-tem Speaker), three each of Goa Forward and MGP, three Independents and Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao.
Vishajit Rane, who over the last few days had been accusing the Congress leadership of squandering away the chances of forming a government in the state, was not present during the voting. "We did know how and when he (Rane) disappeared. We do not know where he is. One moment he was perfectly ok, smiling, chatting with us. He also took oath as MLA, but just before the confidence motion was moved, he disappeared," Congress Legislative Party leader Chandrakant Kavlekar told reporters after the trust vote. Rane later told reporters that he had quit the party and his legislatorship in frustration because the party's senior leadership had let down the mandate of 17 seats won by the Congress. "The people of Goa gave a mandate to Congress. If our strength was 12-13, I would have stayed in the opposition. That is not the question. But when people gave the mandate to us, we have lost it because of the general secretaries and local leadership," Rane said.
Responding to the development, Congress spokesperson Ramakant Khalap accused Vishwajit Rane of sullying the name of democracy by quitting the party in the middle of a trust vote. "He has ruined the name of his illustrious family and his father who is an MLA for 50 years... His parents are ashamed of his act of quitting the Congress," Khalap told IANS.
When Parrikar was asked to react to Rane's going missing during the trust vote, he said: "Why are you asking me, ask him." The Congress alleged that the BJP-led coalition government was illegitimate. "They have bought over MLAs. They have not allowed us to speak in the assembly or discuss the motion, they have even foisted a Speaker who formerly was reporting to Manohar Parrikar as Chief Minister in 2012. "There is no legitimacy for this government," Congress spokesperson and MLA Aleixo Reginaldo told IANS. The former Defence Minsiter later told reporters that portfolios to the 10-member cabinet would be announced on Saturday. "Expansion of the cabinet will be done after the budget session is over. The budget session will begin on March 22," Parrikar said. Thursday's trust vote was ordered by the Supreme Court following a petition by the Congress which alleged that Goa Governor Mridula Sinha had played a partisan role in inviting the BJP to form a government although the Congress was the single largest party with 17 MLAs in the 40-member assembly.