Mohd Fazal joins BJP in Goa

Panaji, Feb 17 (UNI) Former Goa and Maharashtra governor Mohammed Fazal joined the Bharatiya Janata Party here today.

Speaking on the occasion, in the presence of BJP Goa unit president Shripad Naik and Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar, 84-year-old Mr Fazal said he had decided to join the BJP neither with an eye on the coming elections nor with the purpose of becoming a minister.

''I have held positions much above that of a minister,'' he said.

His wife Shirley Godinhoe Fazal, a former Congress general secretary of the local Benaulim Block in South Goa, was also present on the occasion.

Mr Fazal was the Goa Governor from November 1999 to October 2002 and later became the Maharashtra Governor from October 2002 to December 2004. He is now registered as a voter from the Talegao constituency in North Goa.

''I thought that I would devote my life to study and literature.

But the happenins in the state made me restless. The Congress regime is harassing the people and I thought this was the time when to act and become a part of the political set-up,'' he said.

Mr Fazal said he was a Congressman right from his student days.

''In 1978, I formally joined Congress and later quit in 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister,'' he said.

Mr Fazal, thereafter, had joined the BJP in 1996 after a long hiatus only to resign three years later when he was made the governor.

''I was offered the Bihar Governor's post during Indira Gandhi's rule but I refused. Goa Governor's post was not a gift but was offered because of my capabilities,'' he said.

UNI