The Goa Chief Minister’s Office on Monday announced that ailing Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza and Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar will no longer be part of the state Cabinet. Bharatiya Janata Party legislators Nilesh Cabral and Milind Naik will be sworn in as ministers later on Monday, Prudent Media reported.
D’Souza is undergoing treatment for an ailment in the United States and Madkaikar is being treated at a Mumbai hospital after he suffered a stroke.
The former urban development minister told PTI that he was not taken into confidence before being removed from his post. “This is the reward I get for 20 years of loyalty to the party,” D’Souza told the news agency. “I had even spoken to the chief minister last evening but he did not give any hint. When I called him today, he said it was the BJP high command’s decision.”
On Sunday, Bharatiya Janata Party National President Amit Shah said that Manohar Parrikar will remain the chief minister of Goa and added that there would be a change in Cabinet portfolios.
On Thursday, state BJP leaders who met Shah said there had been no decision yet on the political turmoil in the state, in the absence of Parrikar and other ministers. Parrikar, who has been suffering from a pancreatic ailment since February, was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on September 15.
The Goa Congress has asked the BJP-led government to prove its majority in a floor test in the Assembly.
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