Panaji, Feb 2 (IANS) A minister from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) resigned from the Congress-led coalition government in Goa Thursday as the regional party’s coalition talks with the BJP for the forthcoming assembly elections appeared to be nearing fruition.
Transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar Thursday resigned from the government, a few days after the party formally resolved to ask their minister to step down and pull out of the ruling combine.
“I am acting as per the instructions of my party’s central committee. They have asked me to resign,” Dhavalikar said, after the party formally passed the resolution Jan 31.
MGP has been holding parleys with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership vis-a-vis fielding an alliance for the March 3 polls. The pre-condition laid down by the BJP was that before the formal alliance could be finalized and announced, Dhavalikar, the lone MGP minister in Goa’s cabinet of ministers, had to resign.
The MGP — a conservative, regional party, which held sway in Goa for nearly a decade and a half, forming three governments after the liberation of the state in 1961 — is now left with just two legislators in the 40-member Goa legislative assembly.
