Coalition partners protest Congress decision against Dhavlikar

Panaji, Oct 4 (UNI) In what is construed to be a set-back to the 15-month-old Congress-led coalition government in Goa, the MGP and the Nationalist Congress Party today urged the Congress high command to ''discipline'' its Goan leadership which unilaterally decided in favour of dropping PWD minister Ramakrishna Dhavlikar from the Cabinet yesterday for ''anti-party activities''.

Asking the Congress leadership to ''adhere to coalition dharma'' at least till the end of the full term, the coalition partners including water resources minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues (Independent) strongly registered a common protest against the resolution.

''We are extremely shocked at the behaviour of the Congress which resolved to urge the party high command for dropping Mr Dhavlikar,''Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Dr Wilfred D'Souza told media persons in presence of Mr Dhavlikar and agriculture minister Mickey Pacheco(NCP).

They said they had also decided to write ''protest letters'' to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi besides Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and all other coalition partners of the UPA government soon in this regard.

The basic purpose of forming coalition was to ensure the BJP not come back to power and the spirit should continue till the coming elections by working together.

The Congress should have consulted the coalition partners before taking any such resolution impinging on the constituents of the Cabinet. We are all solidly behind Mr Rane and his leadership, They added.

The issue was brought to the notice of Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane also earlier in the day as the resolution caused commotion.

Debunking all allegations of the Congress workers as ''baseless'' Mr Dhavlikar said he had contributed to a lot of development of all the constituencies through his department.

''Now I leave entire thing to the discretion of the Chief Minister whether to drop me from the cabinet or not. I am ready to face any eventuality,'' he added.

It might be recalled that the GPCC had yesterday resolved to send a delegation tomorrow led by its president Ravi Naik to New Delhi asking the party highcommand to direct the Chief Minister to drop Dhavlikar for his ''anti-congress activities.'' The Congress leadership had, on many occasions, openly favoured contesting all the 40 seats on its own by doing away with all the coalition partners.

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