BJP’s Manohar Parrikar talks of Pratap Singh Rane’s ‘unconstitutional’ move & defection politics

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Manohar Parrikar may have lost Round 1 to Congress’s Digambar Kamat, but he has kept his flock together and flown them all to Delhi. The Goa chief minister-in-waiting will soon meet President Pratibha Patil and attempt to prove that he still has the majority in the state assembly. In a candid chat with DNA, he talks of being the perennial chief minister-in-waiting and defection politics, among other things. 

What is your reaction to being labelled ‘the perennial Goa chief minister-in-waiting’?
I do not know. But if you consider the fact that I’m the leader of the majority in the state assembly, then I should get the chief minister’s post. Unfortunately, what happened in the past three days in Goa is a blotch on democracy. If a speaker is allowed to act like a dictator, then no chief minister can be removed anywhere in the country regardless of whether he has the mandate or not.
 
Allegations have emerged that money changed hands and played a key role in building a majority for you.
I am not a politician. I have my own business to sustain myself. The MLAs and leaders of the parties that are supporting us came to me because they felt that the Congress was doing nothing. Besides, you can’t buy an Independent like Anil Salgaokar. He has a yearly business turnover of over Rs2,000 crore.

What is your take on defection politics in Goa?
There is no defection from any quarter. The opposition had 18 members. Now, two members of the MGP and an Independent have left the Congress combine and joined us.

Your party blames Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for what transpired in Goa. Do you agree?
Unless the decision to bar the three MLAs from voting was endorsed by the two Congress leaders, the home ministry, the governor and the speaker, this wouldn’t have come to pass.

Do you think justice will prevail?
The speaker Pratap Singh Rane acted in a blatantly unconstitutional and illegal manner. We have moved the Supreme Court. I am sure the judgment will be in our favour.