New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday given the additional charge of the defence ministry after Manohar Parrikar resigned to take on the new role of Goa Chief Minister.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said that the resignation of Mr Parrikar as the defence minister, on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been accepted with immediate effect.
Mr Parrikar had submitted his resignation after the BJP staked claim to form an alliance government in Goa. He will be heading the BJP-led ministry which has the support of regional outfits and Independents.
Meanwhile, the Congress moved the Supreme Court challenging Goa Governor Mridula Sinha’s decision to appoint Mr Parrikar as the chief minister. The hurriedly filed petition late in the evening was mentioned at the residence of Chief Justice J.S. Kehar, who agreed to give an urgent hearing on Tuesday. The petition filed by Goa CLP leader Chandrakant Kavlekar has sought a stay on the swearing-in of Mr Parrikar as the CM.
In Manipur, N. Biren Singh was unanimously elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party, paving the way for his becoming the next chief minister, more so as a reluctant Ibobi Singh of Congress put in his papers as Chief Minister on Monday after having threatened to stay on against the Governor’s wishes. “N. Biren has been unanimously elected leader of the BJP LP. He is the party’s CM candidate,” Union minister Piyush Goel told reporters. Mr Biren will meet Governor Najma Heptullah and stake claim to form the next government, said Mr Goel, who was present at the meeting, adding “we have the support of smaller parties”.
A minister in the Ibobi Singh-led Congress government, Mr Biren said, “I had left the Congress protesting against its misrule and misgovernance,” he said.
Congress says it is a ‘murder of democracy’
Even as the BJP said it had the legitimacy and the numbers to form the governments in Goa and Manipur, the Congress cried hoarse saying it is a ‘murder of democracy’. In both these states, the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly elections.
Hitting out at the BJP, the Congress said the party should be aware that governments are not formed on the basis of popular vote share. “Parrikar did not contest polls? So how do we know that he is popular among the people? This is the murder of democracy in broad daylight,” Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said.
With the BJP staking claim to form governments in Goa and Manipur, Mr Jaitley said the Governor is right in case of a hung verdict in inviting the leader of the majority coalition.
“In a hung Assembly, if majority of the elected MLAs form a coalition, the Governor would be constitutionally right in inviting the leader of the majority coalition to form the government and prove their majority within a short period,” Mr Jaitley tweeted.
