Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Defence minister Manohar Parrikar was on Tuesday sworn-in as the Goa Chief Minister for the fourth time.
Parrikar, who resigned as Defence Minister, was administered the oath of office by Governor Mridula Sinha in the presence of top BJP leaders including national president Amit Shah, Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari and J.P. Nadda and several other dignitaries.
Nine ministers were also sworn in during the ceremony, namely Sudin Dhavalikar and Manohar Azgaonkar of the Maharashtrawdi Gomantak Party; Vijai Sardesai, Vinod Palienkar and Jayesh Salgaonkar of the Goa Forward; Francis D'Souza, Pandurang Madkaikar of the BJP and Independent legislators Govind Gawde and Rohan Khaunte.
After taking oath as the new Goa CM, Parrikar targeted Congress who had approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on his swearing in as the CM.
"If you had the support then why did you not go to the Governor?" said Parrikar.
He further added that the support extended to the BJP to form government in Goa is for the state's development. He also said that no MLA in Goa was ready to support Congress.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Manohar Parrikar and his team.
Earlier today, in a development paving a clear way for the BJP to form government in Goa, the Supreme Court refused to stay swearing in of Manohar Parrikar as the Chief Minister.
Rejecting a petition by the Congress party seeking directions to the Goa Governor to first invite the single largest party to form government, the SC directed that the floor test be conducted on March 16 instead of the earlier stipulated period of 15 days.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar had questioned the Congress on why it had failed to make its case before the government if it had the requisite majority to form the government.
"If you had the required numbers to form government, why did you not approach the Governor on the matter?" Justice Khehar asked the counsel for the Congress petitioner. The court further asked why even the petition did not have the number of MLAs the party claimed it had support from.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while hitting out at the Congress for accusing the BJP of using money to "steal the mandate" in Manipur and Goa, said the party "complains a bit too much" and that the Goa Governor could not have invited the "minority" of Congress MLAs to form the government.
"The Congress did not even submit a claim to the Governor. It had only the support of 17 MLAs. In the face of claim of the 21 MLAs led by Manohar Parrikar, the Governor could not have invited the minority of 17 MLAs to form the Government," Jaitley said in Facebook post.
