Goa crisis blows over, Kamat to continue as CM

The crisis engulfing the Congress-led coalition in Goa appears to have blown over amid hints that beleaguered chief minister Digamber Kamat will have to make some changes in his cabinet to keep the allies in good humour.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel, who announced after day-long consultations among all concerned parties that the four-day old crisis has been resolved, sidestepped questions on whether it involved some changes in the ministry.

"The chief minister will announce the formula to solve the issues on his return to Goa on Sunday," he said, skirting questions whether Kamat has saved his job by agreeing to effect changes in his ministry.

Kamat, who arrived in New Delhi on Friday for talks with central leaders had remarked, "God will save my government," thereby virtually throwing up his hands in the wake of the political developments that took him by surprise.

"All NCP MLAs, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLAs, Independent Vishwajit Rane and Save Goa Front member have decided to support the Digamber Kamat government," Patel said.

"All matters have been solved," he said.

The Kamat government on Wednesday became a minority regime with its alliance partner NCP and Rane withdrawing support.

Patel made the announcement in the presence of Kamat, All-India Congress Committee general secretary B K Hariprasad, who is in charge of party affairs in Goa, and state Congress chief Francisco Sardinha.

Also present were rebel NCP leader Mickky Pacheco, MGP MLAs Ramakant and Sudhin Dhavlikar and Rane.

The rebel MLAs had rushed to the capital on Saturday morning as the chief minister met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss ways and means to avert the toppling of his seven-month old government.

Alliance sources said the non-Congress parties' main bone of contention was functioning finance minister Dayanand Narvekar's handling of the development of the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park.

A helpless Kamat had said that his government was being toppled for no fault of his. "I ask the people of Goa, have I done anything wrong?" he asked.

The non-Congress parties were complaining that the chief minister was not honouring the commitments he had made earlier to them even as the Congress was alleging the hand of the 'SEZ lobby' in the attempts to destabilise the Kamat ministry.

In the 40-member Goa assembly, Congress has 16 MLAs, Bharatiya Janata Party has 14, NCP has 3 while the Save Goa Front and MGP have two legislators each. The United Goans Democratic Party has one member and there are also two Independent legislators in the house.