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STATES: GOA
Congress Disappointed
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HEADS THAT ROLLED
All the 13 chief ministers in the past decade failed to complete
their terms.
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P.S. RANE
January-March 1990; 3 months
CHURCHILL ALEMAO
March-April 1990; One month
LUIS PROTO BARBOSA
April 1990-January 1991; 7 months
RAVI NAIK
Jan 1991-May 1993; 27 months
WILFRED D'SOUZA
May 1993-April 1994; 11 months
RAVI NAIK
April 1-5, 1994; 4 days
WILFRED D'SOUZA
April-Dec 1994; 6 months
P.S. RANE
Dec 1994-July 1998; 42 months
WILFRED D'SOUZA
July-Nov 1998; 4 months
LUIZINHO FALEIRO
Nov 1998-Feb 1999; 3 months
PRESIDENT'S RULE
Feb-June 1999; 4 months
LUIZINHO FALEIRO
June-Nov 1999; 5 months
FRANCISCO SARDINHA
Nov 1999 to Oct 2000; 11 months
M. PARRIKAR
Oct 2000 to date
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The Congress, however,
is not impressed. Nirmala Sawant, Congress chief in Goa, believes that
the BJP Government has survived "by use of brutal police force".
According to her, "Revenue is being raised at the cost of the common
man. This is a government that is for the BJP and not for the people of
Goa." Parrikar is unmoved. "They make claims, but fail to produce
evidence," he says.
Parrikar believes that the Congress is getting
worried.
Of the BJP's 21 MLAs, one is
a Muslim and two are Christians. Philip Neri comes from Salcette, a constituency
that has 95 per cent Christian voters. The other Jose Philip D'Souza,
who is the revenue minister, outlines the shifting sands of popular support.
"When I was with the Congress, we targeted the BJP as being communal.
But this regime is better than all the others we have worked with. We
Christians don't see or feel any discrimination," he says.
An IIT graduate in metallurgy, Parrikar seems
to have found the right chemical equation for managing contradictions.
This has come in handy in running a government in a state where 26 per
cent of the voters are Christians and 5 per cent are Muslims. What's more,
the party, which was worried about the impact of coalition politics on
the organisation, too has benefited. The party's original band of painters
need not worry any longer. The BJP has a membership of nearly a lakh and
a 7,500-strong cadre assigned specific duties. In a sense the young band
of professionals could well have been celebrating the coming of age of
BJP in Goa on October 23.
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