Sack Parsekar for Goa alliance's sake, says MGP

Panaji, Dec 8: A BJP ally in Goa on Thursday demanded Laxmikant Parsekar be sacked and a new Chief Minister appointed if the party wanted the ruling alliance to continue.

"Parsekar has been imposed on us. We have asked the BJP to change him. A new Chief Minister should be sworn in if this alliance is to be taken forward to the next election," Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party President Deepak Dhavalikar told the media here.

"When the alliance talks were on in 2012, we had insisted that Manohar Parrikar should be Chief Minister. But once he became the Defence Minister, Parsekar was thrust upon us against our wishes," Dhavalikar said.

He said his party was open to contesting all 40 assembly seats if the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party did not work.

Dhavalikar, a minister in the BJP-led alliance government, earlier attended a meeting of the regional party's central committee.

Ponda MLA Lavu Mamledar, present at the press conference, said: "Goa has gone back 10 years under Parsekar's Chief Ministership of two and a half years."

Parsekar was appointed the Chief Minister in November 2014 after Parrikar became the Defence Minister in the Modi government.

Political wrangling between the MGP and the BJP has increased in recent times, especially with elections to the 40-member Goa assembly likely early next year.

The BJP has a simple majority of 21 seats in the assembly and the MGP has three MLAs, two of them cabinet ministers. The MGP was also a member of the Congress-led alliance in 2007-12.

Dhavalikar also criticised the November 8 demonetisation decision of the Centre.

"While the idea to weed out black money is good, the manner in which demonetisation was implemented has put the people in hardship," Dhavalikar said.