By IANS
Panaji/New Delhi : The seven-month-old Congress-led coalition government in Goa was in trouble as three ministers and a supporting legislator Wednesday resigned over differences with the state cabinet.
Vishwajit Rane (Independent), Micky Pacheco and Jose Philip (both of Nationalist Congress Party – NCP) resigned over their differences with Finance and IT Minister Dayanand Narveker.
Nilkanth Halarnkar, a legislator, also tendered his resignation to the governor.
The four resignations put the coalition in a minority in the 40-member Goa assembly.
The ruling coalition of the Congress, NCP, Save Goa Front and independents has 23 MLAs, while United Goans Democratic Party MLA Atanasio Monserratte extends issue-based support to the Kamat government.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 14 legislators and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party has two.
Meanwhile, the Congress leadership in New Delhi went into a fire-fighting mode and sent Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to resolve the crisis.
According to Congress sources, Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane, son of former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane, triggered the rebellion.
Rane and Monserratte were targeting Narvekar over the proposed Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat in the state.
Monseratte was opposing the IT habitat while the finance minister was keen on it.
Rane, according to the sources, was persuading the NCP to withdraw the support for the Kamat government.
The party sources added that the Congress leaders would meet to discuss whether the ongoing assembly session should be adjourned sine die soon.
The Kamat government meanwhile had to put off a financial bill – Goa Appropriation Bill, 2008 – by a day due to the crisis.
The Goa episode came as a second jolt of the day for the Congress after its Andhra Pradesh ally Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) threatened that its MPs and legislators would resign if the central government did not take a decision on the issue of separate statehood for Telangana March 6.