By IANS
New Delhi : The four-day long political crisis in Goa has been resolved Saturday evening with the rebel MLAs agreeing to continue supporting the Congress-led coalition government, according to the ruling party.
“The issue has been resolved. The Congress leaders sat with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and independent MLAs and sorted out the differences. The crisis is over,” All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary B.K. Hariprasad told IANS.
The announcement came after day long discussions among all the concerned parties in the house of union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel here.
Apart from Patel and Hariprasad, Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) head Francisco Sardanha and independent MLAs Vishwajeet, Dhaolekar and Mickey Pasha also attended the discussions.
“The demands of all the leaders present at the meeting were discussed and a satisfactory agreement has been reached,” said a senior Congress leader.
The Congress government led by Kamat had run into a crisis four days ago as three NCP MLAs and an independent threatened to withdraw support to it.
In the 40-member Goa assembly, Congress has 16 MLAs, followed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (14) and NCP (3), while two each are from the Save Goa Front (SGF) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. The United Goans Democratic Party has one member and there are two independent legislators.
If the rebels withdrew support, the government would have been reduced to a minority with only 16 seats.
It is not yet clear what the Congress leadership has offered the rebels to make them change their minds.
Earlier, when the crisis erupted, Chief Minister Kamat had accused the BJP of creating a political mess in the state.
However, BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said Friday that the allegation was “baseless and far from the truth”.
Swaraj also criticised the Goa speaker and governor saying they were taking sides and acting in a partisan manner. “The Goa assembly was adjourned sine die by the speaker without passing the Appropriation Bill. And then the governor prorogued the house,” she said.