Parrikar says he will be 'back in Goa in the next few weeks'

Parrikar exhorted the cadres to get ready for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and said the country needed Narendra Modi as prime minister again.

Panaji, May 13: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, through a video message, on Sunday said that he would return to his home state in the "next few weeks" from the US, where he has been undergoing medical treatment since March.

The video message was played at a BJP workers' meeting that was addressed by party president Amit Shah.

"I am not there among you all for the last two months as I am undergoing treatment. I will be back in Goa in the next few weeks," the chief minister said in the pre-recorded video message.

He said he could not attend the party workers' meeting because of his ill health. Parrikar exhorted the cadres to get ready for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and said the country needed Narendra Modi as prime minister again.

Parrikar (62) is undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a hospital in the US, where he was admitted in the first week of March after being treated at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.

The Congress has demanded the appointment of a "full-time" chief minister for the coastal state in Parrikar's absence. In the absence of the chief minister, a three-member advisory committee, comprising cabinet ministers, is looking after the day-to-day affairs of the government.

PTI