A day after the two NCP MLAs in the coalition Goa Cabinet refused to resign after the high command asked them to do so, the NCP sent down party general secretary Mr Prakash Binsale to Goa to settle the issue.
Armed with a letter of dismissal, Mr Binsale will ensure either tourism minister Mr Nilkanth Halarnkar or revenue minister Mr Jose Phillip D’Souza resigns, thus paving the way for party MLA, Mr Mickky Pacheco, to make a comeback.
On Wednesday, the NCP had initiated an inquiry on Mr Halarnkar and Mr D’Souza after the duo had met with local Congress leaders, allegedly promising the coalition government support after talks had surfaced about reinstating Mr Pacheco in the Cabinet.
Mr Halarnkar had replaced Mr Pacheco as tourism minister after the Benaulim MLA was forced to resign after being named the prime suspect in the mysterious suicide death case of his girlfriend Nadia Torrado. While Goa chief minister Mr Digambar Ka-mat had stated on Friday that he had not been told by the NCP high command about the impending ouster of the two ministers, sour-ces said that Mr Binsale also carried a letter addressed to Mr Kamat from the NCP high command stating the party’s intention about dropping at least one of the two ministers to accommodate Mr Pacheco. Meanwhile Mr Pacheco’s arch rival in South Goa, Congress MLA and PWD minister Mr Churchill Alemao had warned that he would not “sit quite if Mr Halarnkar and M D’Souza were removed.” Reacting to this, NCP state president Prof. Surender Sirsat on Saturday said that Mr Alemao should not interfere in the party’s internal matters.