Cong MLAs oppose Pacheco in Cabinet
NCP president Sharad Pawar’s directive to Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat to re-induct controversial MLA Francesco Pacheco in the ministry resulted in a group of 10 Congress legislators on Wednesday night threatening to topple its own government in such an eventuality. The government would be toppled within minutes if Mr Pacheco, a former tourism minister, is sworn in, the MLAs said at a press conference here.
Asserting that they would not bow down to any diktat even if it is from the party high command, the legislators, led by Public Works Department minister Churchill Alemao, asked Congress general secretary B. Hariprasad, in-charge of state affairs, to immediately rush to Goa to resolve the crisis.
Along with Mr Churchill Alemao, Congress MLAs Joaquim Alemao, Agnelo Fernandes, Philip Nery Rodrigues, Fransico Silveira, Atanasio Monserratte, Pandurang Madkaikar, Manohar Asgaonkar, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco and Chandrakant Kavlekar are lobbying against Mr Pacheco’s induction.
Goa is facing a fresh round of political instability, ever since NCP asked both its ministers — Jose Philip D’Souza and Nilkant Halarnkar, to quit from the state Cabinet.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, earlier in the morning, asked chief minister Digamber Kamat to immediately drop the two NCP ministers and swear in Mr Pacheco.
“Pacheco has a murder case against him. He is also named as an accused in money laundering case. We don’t want anyone with tainted character in the Cabinet,” Mr Alemao said.
—PTI
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