Manohar Parrikar Returns As Goa CM; Major Relief to Casinos

Manohar Parrikar
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  • PG News March 13, 2017
  • 2 Minutes Read

It was a heart-stopping moment for Goa casinos, with the Congress winning a seeming majority of 17 seats, the BJP lesser with 13 and the smaller parties the rest 10 seats at the recently concluded elections. Overnight though, the BJP garnered enough support from smaller factions and are now taking charge of the government, with old hand, Manohar Parrikar back as Chief Minister (CM), spelling relief for the casino industry.

The election results have been a crucial one for Goa casinos, with the March 31 deadline looming for offshore casinos to be moved out of the River Mandovi, besides most parties promising to ‘eradicate’ casinos if voted to power. The incumbent BJP was the only one, which had declared that casinos brought in vital revenues and had also supported the industry with continuous extension of deadlines.

Casinos had been walking the plank and had the Congress or any other party come into power; it might have spelled doom for the operators.

In a major relief, on Sunday night, Governor Mridula Sinha appointed Manohar Parrikar as CM and asked him to prove his majority within 15 days. Parrikar, was Goa CM before Laxmikant Parsekar took over and he later became the Union Defence Minister. He is said to be tendering in his resignation to the central brass today and has their approval for his return to Goa politics.

In fact, since quite some time Parrikar had let the BJP high command know his wish to return to Goa, where he had earlier run the local administration with a confident hand and had been the one to strongly declare casinos a business that could not be ignored, though he personally did not approve of them.

The BJP has claimed that it has already gotten the support of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa Forward Party (GFP) and a few Independents taking its tally up to 21. All the supporters are believed to have backed the BJP on the condition that Parrikar return as CM.

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