SHORTEST: Ravi Naik, who became chief minister after killing the MGP and defecting to the Congress, has the dubious honor of serving the shortest time as chief minister — only six days from April 2, 1994 to April 8, 1994. The chief minister who has served the largest number of times and longest is Pratapsingh Rane who completed four terms as CM. Manohar Parrikar did not complete even one full term for several reasons.

By Rajan Narayan

While in the 26 years when Goa was a Union Territory there were only three governments, after statehood there were 18 governments due to toppling games. There was only one case of defection before Goa became a state. After statehood the only chief ministers who completed full term in office were Pratapsingh Raoji Rane and Digambar Kamat….

MAY 29, 2021 is celebrated every year as Statehood Day. It was on this day that Goa was declared a full-fledged State instead of its earlier status as a Union Territory. The difference between being a State and a Union Territory is that under Union Territory rules it is the lieutenant governor who is supreme. Even if there is a Cabinet and an elected chief minister no policy or scheme can be introduced without the permission of the Lt Governor.
In the case of Delhi, the vindictive Modi government passed a law confirming that all powers are vested with the Lt Governor Anil Baijal, who can and has vetoed many populist moves by the Arvind Kejriwal government. The reason why the AAP is distributing rations from home to home in Goa is because the Lt Governor in Delhi did not allow them to do so. It has that stock which the Kejriwal government had purchased and which is now being distributed in Goa.
In contrast to Union Territories, in the states the governor is just a rubber stamp. The governor has to abide by the decisions of the chief minister of the state. It is primarily thanks to former Member of Parliament Shantaram Naik, that Goa acquired statehood. After the passing of the Official Language Act by the Goa Assembly it became entitled to become a State.
But Parliament had to amend the act to include Goa in the list of it states. Shantaram is often referred to as the “hero of the zero hour.” Parliament and all legislative assemblies have a zero hour during which questions of any matters of urgent concern may be raised by MLAs in Legislative Assembly and MPs in Parliament.
When Shantaram Naik kept reminding Rajeev Gandhi of his mother’s promise of making Goa a State, he asked him to mention it during zero hour. The Lok Sabha then took up the matter of upgrading the status of Goa and pass the resolution conferring statehood on Goa. I, like many other Goans, were delighted that Goa had finally acquired the status of a State. In fact, the option in the Opinion Poll should have been between merger with Maharashtra or Statehood.
AS a State Goa had 30 seats in the Assembly or to be more specific, 28 seats as one seat each was allotted to Daman and Diu which came under Goa. During the 26 years that Goa was a Union Territory it had only three chief ministers. They were the first chief minister, Dayanand Bandodkar, who was MGP chief minister from December 20, 1963 to December 2, 1966. He took a break for the Opinion Poll and was re-elected as chief minister on April 5, 1967. He died on August 12, 1973 and his daughter Shashikala Kakodkar took over as CM.
Shashikala was CM from August 12, 1973 to April 27, 1979. Her government lost its majority and President’s Rule was declared between April 27, 1979 and January 16, 1980. When elections were held in January 16, 1980 Pratapsingh Rane became CM and he served for two terms consecutively till March 1990. Before the toppling game was CM for 15 days April 14 1990.
But between 1987 when Goa got Statehood and 2021, Goa had as many as 16 chief ministers. Excepting for Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane no other chief minister has completed a full term of five years. Statehood introduced Goans to the toppling games which were very common in other states in the country.

FIRST DEFECTION

THE first defection as we have already noted was when Pratapsingh Rane, who was a revenue minister in the Shashikala government, defected along with Dayanand Narvekar and the late Dilkush Desai. I recall that Dilkush Desai was shot in the head by some enemies and he remained an invalid. In the elections that followed for the first time the Congress got a majority and a chance to form the government. It was Dr Wilfred D’Souza, who led the Congress to victory by getting the United Goans to join the Congress. Churchill Alemao was very adamant that he should be given the sports portfolio in place of Francisco Monte Cruz who had built the Fatorda Stadium in record time for the Federation Cup Football Tournament.
An imperious Rane refused. The result was that Churchill Alemao persuaded the then speaker Dr Prato Barbosa who defected with six other MLAs to bring down the Rane government. At that time the anti-defection rule was that if 1/3rd of the members of a legislative party quit the party on which ticket they were elected it was not considered a defection. Dr Proto Barbosa was supposed to take over as chief minister. But because of the rule that Speaker cannot defect and has to return to the party on which ticket he was elected, it took some time for him to take over as the boss. In the meanwhile for 48 days Churchill Alemao like Bharat in the Ramayana epic kept the chief minister’s chair warm for Prato Barbosa.
So within the first year of the Progressive Front government there were two chief ministers, namely Churchill Alemao and Dr Proto Barbosa. Dr Wilfred D’Souza was determined to displace the Barbosa government. He persuaded Ravi Naik and his group of seven MLAs, who did not join Ramakant Khalap in the first round of defections, to join the Congress and become the chief minister. Ravi was only happy to oblige. Between Khalap and Ravi Naik they killed the MGP in their greed for power.
A petition was filed against Ravi Naik in the High Court which struck down his defection to the Congress. Ravi had to step down as CM in favour of Dr Wilfred D’Souza. Unfortunately for Dr Willy, the Supreme Court overturned the High Court order. The then Governor Bhanu Pratap Singh even without consulting the Congress party or the prime minister dismissed Dr Wilfred and re-appointed Ravi Naik as the chief minister.
The Congress High Command was furious and forced Ravi to step down. So Ravi could enjoy his second spell as chief minister only for six days. From April 2 to April 8, 1994. Dr Wilfred D’Souza was reappointed as the chief minister and served the rest of the term of the assembly.
In the election that followed in December 1994, Pratap Singh Rane was selected as chief minister of Goa by the High Command much to the anger of Dr Wilfred D’Souza.
Dr Wilfred D’Souza broke away from the Congress to form the Goa Rajiv Congress and toppled the Rane government. The Wilfred D Souza government which lasted for five months from July 30, 1998 to November 26, 1998, was toppled by Luizinho Faleiro and the Congress came back to power.

PRESIDENT’S RULE

IN VIEW of the revolt against the Faleiro government there was instability and President’s Rule was declared from February 9, 1999 to June 9, 1999. In the subsequent election LuIzinho Falerio won. But his ministry did not last for long. He was toppled by Francisco Sardinha in November 24, 1999 and Sardinha was in power till October 24 2000.
It was Francisco Sardinha who first allowed the saffron camel, the BJP, to enter the Congress tent. Manohar Parrikar along with four MLAs had extended support to Sardinha to topple the Falerio government. Parrikar toppled Saldinha on October 24, 2000 and retained power till February 2, 2005. There was a revolt against Parrikar and his government which was toppled and Pratapsingh Rane of Congress came back to power. But the Rane government lasted for only 32 days from February 2, 2005 to March 4 2005. President’s rule was again declared between March 4, 2005 and June 7, 2005. Till the assembly term ended. In the elections held in 2005 Pratapsingh Rane came back to power but he could retain his kodel only for two years from June 7, 2005 to June 8, 2007.
BY this time Digambar Kamat had defected from the BJP to the Congress. This was a big shock to Manohar Parrikar as Digambar had been asked to protect the BJP MLAs and had even taken then to Jaipur in Rajasthan to prevent poaching. In the elections which followed the Congress won and Digambar was elected chief minister of the Congress government and he managed to complete a full term from June 8, 2007 to March 9, 2012.
In the subsequent election Manohar Parrikar came back to power with the help of several Congress rebels and the support of Babush Monserrate. Parrikar was chief minister from March 9, 2012 to November 8 2014. By then Narendra Modi had become the prime minister and he forced Parrikar to go to Delhi and be defence minister. His place was taken by Laxmikant Parsekar who finished the rest of the term of the assembly till 2017.
IN the 2017 election it was the Congress which got the largest number of 17 seats with the BJP getting only 13 seats. However, Nitin Gadkari persuaded Vijai Sardesai of Goa Forward and Sudhin Dhavalikar of MGP who had three seats each respectively to join the BJP. The Congress would have come to power if Luizinho had not sabotaged the chances of Digambar Kamat with whom Vijai Sardesai had an informal alliance.
Unfortunately for Parrikar who returned to Goa in 2017, he could not complete the rest of his term as chief minister. He developed pancreatic cancer and died on March 18, 2018. His place was taken by Pramod Sawant as many of the senior BJP MLAs like Laxmikant Parsekar and Rajendra Arlekar had lost the 2017 election. So much so there have been 18 chief ministers since Goa became a State as against only three when it was a Union Territory!
Statehood is not compatible with political stability in Goa. With elections just about six to eight months away there is also in-fighting within both the Congress and the BJP. Laxmikant Parsekar and Rajya Sabha MP Sadanand Tanavade have announced their determination to contest the 2022 election which might be pushed forward towards the end of 2021.

KING MAKER MONSERRATE

BUT Vinay Tendulkar, the BJP party president, had ruled out giving tickets to Parsekar and Tanavade. His logic being the High Command will decide and individual MLAs may not announce their candidature. The Congress as usual is fighting about who should be the next CM.
Luizinho Faleiro is determined to get back to power with the blessings of Sonia Gandhi. The fight is so bitter there was a fist fight between supporters of Girish Chodankar and those who wanted him dropped. Francisco Sardinha has also thrown his hat into the ring. You then have the Goa Forward, the BJP, the AAP and the Goencho Avaz which is planning to convert itself into a political party. Not to mention the Goa Revolutionary Party.
There will have to be 40 chief ministers to meet the greed of all the 40 MLAs when elections are held. Whoever wins, Babush Monserrate will continue to be the kingmaker.