Kamat gets breather as rebels fall in line

PANAJI, New Delhi, JANUARY 18: Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat seems to have got a second life with dissidents making it clear that they were not after his ouster, it is learnt.

The three NCP MLAs, including two ministers, who along with Independent MLA Vishwajit Rane had withdrawn support to reduce the seven-month-old Kamat Government to minority were said to be seeking plum ministerial portfolios. Highly-placed sources said the NCP would probably be given the PWD portfolio which is now held by Save Goa Front (SGF) MLA Churchill Alemao. There is also a proposal to give a ministry to Atanasio Monserrate, the lone UGDP member.

Sources said the NCP members toned down their stance following party chief Sharad Pawar’s warning of “strict action”. Meanwhile, Vishwajit Rane also seems to have given up his demand for a change in leadership. His father and Speaker Pratapsinh Rane’s tough posture has also helped weaken the dissidents.

The NCP wants Alemao to be stripped of the PWD portfolio and the CM to hold other important portfolios like Home and Finance, making him more powerfull. Incidentally, Reginaldo Lourenco, the other SGF legislator, has ganged up with the rebels against Alemao.

In New Delhi, top Congress and NCP leaders were holding discussions till late into the night on Friday to find a solution to the crisis in Goa. Earlier in the day, Kamat along with AICC general secretary in charge of Goa B K Hari Prasad briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the situation before heading for talks with NCP leader Praful Patel. The Congress was learnt to have offered to set up a coordination committee to sort out the differences.

Meanwhile, the NCP expressed confidence that the crisis-ridden Government will survive. “The Government will survive. We will find some solution,” Patel told reporters. He said that since the party MLAs were talking to the NCP leadership and had “not walked out”, some solution appeared possible. At the same time, he said, “some commitments” that have been made to some legislators earlier have to be honoured. He, however, did not elaborate on the commitments.

In sharp contrast to the NCP’s optimism, Kamat commented that God would save his Government. “We are still negotiating. We will find some solution shortly,” Hari Prasad told The Indian Express on Friday evening. He, however, refused to discuss any details of negotiations.

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