(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Goa Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was sworn-in as the state's 11th chief minister yesterday, pipping to the post rivals like assembly Speaker Rajendra Arlekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza who had doggedly opposed his candidature till less than two hours before the oath taking.
The diminutive Parsekar, 58, along with nine cabinet ministers, was administered the oath of office at the Raj Bhavan grounds in the afternoon, shortly after he formally staked claim to form a government.
Speaking to the media for the first time in his new role, Parsekar, a former Bharatiya Janata Party state chief, unwittingly conceded that the shadow of his predecessor Manohar Parrikar, who resigned earlier in the day due to his impending elevation to the union cabinet, would continue to loom large.
"Manohar Parrikar is going to return from Delhi on the 13th or 14th (November). We will decide the portfolios after that," he told reporters, even as he interacted with hundreds of his supporters.
Parrikar will be sworn-in as a union cabinet minister, most likely with the defence portfolio.
D'Souza, Dayanand Mandrekar, Ramesh Tawadkar, Mahadev Naik, Dilip Parulekar, Milind Naik, Alina Saldanha (all from BJP) and Sudin Dhavalikar and Pandurang Dhavalikar (both from Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party) were sworn-in as cabinet ministers yesterday. The two remaining vacancies in the cabinet are expected to be filled up later this month.
Earlier in the day, BJP state leaders as well as central observers Rajeev Pratap Rudy and Purshottam Rupala were busy firefighting dissent sparked by D'Souza, who since Friday had refused to work with Parsekar or Arlekar, claiming both were junior to him.
"I am still in the race for chief minister. I will speak to the party's observers and make my point clear. I will quit government and will stay away from the swearing-in ceremony today. I am okay with being an ordinary MLA," D'Souza told reporters before a meeting of the party's legislators.
What followed was a series of meetings at the BJP's state headquarters between Parrikar, state party president Vinay Tendulkar and the central observers on the one hand and the BJP legislators on the other.
The breakthrough was achieved an hour and a half before the swearing-in ceremony after a final meeting between D'Souza, Arlekar, Parsekar and Parrikar and the two party observers.
Emerging from the meeting, D'Souza said: "I thought Parsekar was being imposed on us. Today I was told that majority of the MLAs were supporting him."
Sources said that apart from being made deputy chief minister again, D'Souza would be allotted a key portfolio in addition to those he was in-charge of for the last two and a half years.
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