Navhind Times

Panaji, Mar 16: Alleging that the Congress party is unscrupulously blackmailing the Nationalist Congress Party as well as the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party into supporting the Digambar Kamat government, the Leader of the Opposition, Parrikar on Sunday said that he has well timed his offer to the MGP, to forge an alliance with the BJP.

Speaking to the media on Sunday morning, Parrikar said that the three NCP MLAs have time and again expressed their unwillingness to go with the state government, while the MGP has differences on every other issue with the government. The issues include off-shore casinos, special economic zones, ordinance promulgated by the government to amend the Land Acquisition Act and ignorance towards the notices sent to the fishermen residing along the coastline to demolish their houses, chairmanship of the Scheduled Tribe Corporation and so on.

In fact, the Speaker, Pratapsingh Rane has forced the MGP to keep the July 18, 2007 decision of its executive committee for withdrawal of support to the government, in abeyance by blackmailing the two MGP MLAs of possible disqualification, he said, pointing out that the disqualification issue of Dhavalikar brothers is far from being over and still hangs on their head like the Sword of Damocles. `I feel that the MGP is ready to quit the government at the first opportunity,' he added.

Maintaining that he has timed well the BJP's offer to MGP for a possible tie-up for the forthcoming Parliamentary polls, Parrikar said that the decision to forward the tie-up proposal was taken once MGP announced its plans to contest the Lok Sabha election, thus giving signals that it is not with the government, and the party's support to the Digambar Kamat government is given under pressure.

`I will approach the MGP president, Pandurang Raut with the proposal by March 17,' said Parrikar adding, `the proposal would not be a written one, but through one-to-one discussion.'

Parrikar also said that he restrained himself from approaching the MGP all this while, as the MGP leaders were involved in intense discussions as to whether their party should join hands with the BJP or not. `I wanted to give them enough time, and now enough discussions appear to have taken place between them,' he added.

Replying to a question as regards the possibility of BJP-MGP tie up, Parrikar said, `I am positive about the response of the MGP.' Answering another question as to whether the BJP would take up the issue as regards the ordinance promulgated by the government to amend the Land Acquisition Act, in the House, during the forthcoming budget session, as well as it would be taken up during the Lok Sabha election campaign, the Leader of the Opposition said, `This is too small an issue as compared to various other scams of the government, like the off-shore casino scam.' The government has amended a law through an ordinance, and the question is whether there was a need to do so, in such a hurry, without waiting for the assembly to be convened, he noted.