The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party on Friday said it has decided to withdraw its support to the coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa, The Hindu reported.
Party chief Deepak Dhavalikar said the party will support the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections and Mapusa bye-elections, both of which will be held on April 23.
“We have decided to withdraw support to the Pramod Sawant government,” Dhavalikar said, according to PTI. “We will soon be writing to Governor Mridula Sinha.”
Dhavalikar said Pramod Sawant did not know how to act as a chief minister, Prudent Media reported. “MGP will rise again after these bye-polls, we are supporting Congress but they should stay in discipline.”
Dhavalikar told The Hindu the party will decide in the coming days who to support against the BJP in the Mandrem constituency bye-election. “But surely we will support the strongest of the candidates, Congress or otherwise,” he said. “We are going all out to defeat BJP candidates in the April 23 election to teach the party a lesson for splitting the MGP and sacking senior leader Sudin Dhavalikar unceremoniously from the coalition government.”
Sudin Dhavalikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party was made the deputy chief minister when Pramod Sawant took over as chief minister last month. However, he was dropped from the state Cabinet just a week later, when the other two MLAs of his party joined the BJP.
Once the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party withdraws support, the BJP-led coalition’s strength would drop to 20 in the 36-member truncated House of 40. The government has support from 14 BJP MLAs, three members of the Goa Forward Party and three independents. The Congress also has 14 legislators.
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